It’s been almost five years Fortnite entered the world, and what followed changed the gaming landscape as we know it.
Epic Games announced the free-to-play Battle Royale mode in 2017 and the rest is history.
Within a few months, Fortnite had gathered more than 20 million players.
Today, 400 million people have played the game, with over 80 million active players.
First and foremost, Fortnite is an online video game — one of the largest video games in the world. There are a few different game modes, but the main event is the Battle Royale mode, where 100 players battle it out on an open-world island.
Players must jump out of a flying “Battle Bus”, land on the island, find resources and weapons, and dodge the deadly storm that is slowly approaching in an undisclosed area of the map.
Ultimately, all remaining players are forced into close combat where there can only be one winner, which is if you play Solos.
There are other game modes with team matches, creative custom game modes and maps, and a campaign launched alongside the game called Save the World – which is essentially a zombie survival game.
how do you play Fortnite?
Fortnite can be downloaded and played completely free of charge, but the company behind the game is one of the most profitable studios ever.
In 2020, Epic Games reported revenue of $7.3 billion.
This has a number of reasons. One is Fortnite‘s Battle Pass system where players subscribe to a monthly fee and gain access to the exclusive Battle Pass items for that season.
The other is Fortnite‘s in-game warehouse filled with virtual costumes, or skins, to give the player his own creative flair. The average skin costs about 1800 V-Bucks, Fortnite‘s own in-game currency – yes, they have their own money.
V-Bucks can be bought almost anywhere in the real world – from game stores to the local supermarket.
How big is Fortnite?
It is clearly much more than just a video game, Fortnite has seen gamers and content creators launch global careers.
Some Aussie Fortnite streamers have even made it to the game themselves, such as Melbourne’s very own Kathleen Belsten, better known as “Loserfruit”.
Fortnite tournaments are regularly organized around the world, some of them offer huge prize money for the best players.
In 2019, the first-ever Fortnite World Cup offered one of the largest prize pools in esports history, an incredible $30.4 million dollars ($44 million).
Top soloist, Kyle Giersdorf, aka “Bugha”, took home a whopping $3 million ($0.3 million).
Fortnite‘s most recent collaboration has resulted in the hugely popular anime Dragon Ball to the Table, another franchise still going strong more than 30 years after it aired.
Players can now recharge their powers, just like Goku and Vegeta, find the dragon balls and fly around the nimbus cloud – it’s really special.
The crossovers in Fortnite are something we’ve never seen in a game on this scale.
Players can dress up as Spider-Man, lightsaber in hand, fly around and shoot Kamehameha blasts at Indiana Jones and LeBron James – the entertainment value is on another level.
How old are the people playing?
While to the general population, Fortnite is considered a game for kids, the player data says otherwise.
Nearly 63 percent of Fortnite gamers are between the ages of 18 and 24, with 22.5 percent between the ages of 25 and 34.
It’s a game that can be played on almost any device, from mobile phones to PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch (anything with browser support would do the trick).
Have there been any controversies?
Just because they’re one of the world’s most popular online video games doesn’t mean they’re immune to controversy.
There was a period around 2018 and 2019 when Fortnite was making a bad cover over its reported addictive nature, replacing classic MMORPG World of Warcraft.
Studies have since shown that video game addiction, while it exists, affects only the smallest percentage of gamers.
In 2020 Apple removed Fortnite from the app store, kicking players off the platform.
Apple claimed that Epic Games was trying to evade their fee when it comes to in-game transactions.
Epic Games then took legal action against the tech giants to lift the ban without success.
While Fortnite is still absent from the Apple App Store, Xbox’s latest cloud update means players can jump in Fortnite from any device.
How did Fortnite changed?
The Fortnite The layout of the map has changed drastically over the years, with the entire island being decimated in an inverted big bang-like event at the end of season two.
We’ve had alien invasions, summer beach parties, superhero takeovers and visitors from a galaxy far, far away.
Fortnite is currently in Season 3 of Chapter 3 and a new season will launch in mid-September. We’ll have to wait and see what the future will bring.
0 Comments