Fortnite: Battle Royale faces tough competition from the new battle royale game Apex Legends. Nevertheless, the player count for Epic’s successful game continues to rise. The genre appears to have enough space for two big titles.
What is the new player record? The Fortnite developers at Epic Games have recorded a new player milestone. On February 16, 2019, there were 7.6 million players online at the same time. This was the largest player count outside of an event.
In fact, February 16 was just an ordinary day without a special event or a patch. The event record, however, still stands at 10.7 million concurrent players who
witnessed the big Marshmello concert at the beginning of February.
Fortnite is certainly not dead, even if some would like to see it that way.
The reasons for Fortnite’s ongoing success
This is how the death rumor of Fortnite originated: When the new battle royale shooter Apex Legends seemingly appeared out of nowhere on February 4, 2019, the game from the Titanfall creators quickly climbed to the top of the Twitch charts and attracted millions of players to the servers.
As many Fortnite streamers immediately started playing the new game intensively, rumors of Fortnite’s death spread quickly. Apex does so much right and better than Fortnite. Especially the gunplay comes without annoying bloom, there are well-balanced heroes, and a lot of extremely cool comfort features that hardly anyone wants to miss anymore.
Why is Fortnite still so successful? However, there is no talk of a decline or even a death of Fortnite. Rather, the numbers are still increasing. Epic has indeed implemented several clever initiatives that have ensured action and full servers even during the traditionally slow transition period between two seasons:
- The gameplay has become more aggressive and dynamic due to changes. There are now health points regained through kills, and more materials are dropped.
- The battle pass has been promised for free to all players who complete a certain number of challenges during the transition period.
- The prisoner bonus skin also introduced numerous new challenges that were unlocked gradually.
- For Valentine’s Day, there was a free glider to gift.
- Finally, there is ranked play, albeit with issues.
All these innovations were implemented by Epic quickly and largely successfully. The competition from Apex Legends may have played a significant role.
The genre has enough space for two big games
Why Apex is not the big Fortnite killer: However, the competition doesn’t seem that fierce, as the battle royale genre likely has enough room for two large free-to-play games. Both Apex and Fortnite cater to different player needs:
- Apex Legends is more interesting for pure shooter fans because its gunplay is perceived as better and there is no building involved.
- Fortnite, on the other hand, is a phenomenon among teenagers and children, impressing with massive events, constantly new features, and a crazy building mode.
Therefore, both games can likely coexist well side by side and secure a large core audience that provides them with good revenue.
Nonetheless, it is interesting how both games have recently provided numerous updates and new elements to keep their content-hungry players entertained.
The competition may not be as tough as assumed, but it definitely enlivens the business and benefits the players.
