The online shooter Fortnite has broken the record for the most concurrent viewers on Twitch, previously held by LoL. However, the record comes with a catch: Many players had to watch streamers because they simply couldn’t get into the game. Epic stated that they had to limit the player count.
This is the record: It concerns the record for the most concurrent viewers for a game on Twitch. Ultimately, it’s about how many people are watching channels that are associated with a game at the same time. The record has now changed for the third time in less than a year:
- In October 2019, Fortnite reached 1.7 million unique viewers during the “Black Hole” event
- In November 2019, LoL took the record with the World Championship – during which LoL reached 1.74 million viewers at Worlds 2019
- Now in June 2020, Fortnite has raised the record to 2.3 million viewers – on YouTube, Fortnite even had 6.1 million people watching
This is how Fortnite broke the record: On June 15, at 8 PM, the end event of Season 2 in Fortnite took place. The live event: “The Device” flooded the map and provided players with some strange cutscenes.
This event had long been announced with an in-game countdown but had been postponed several times. Normally, live events in Fortnite take place on a Saturday night – but this event was on a Monday. That may have also contributed to the high viewer numbers.
With 12 million players, Fortnite closes the door
Here’s the catch: Many Fortnite players who wanted to see the event live couldn’t log in on Monday night. Epic simply wouldn’t let them into the game. Those who still wanted to follow the event had to watch a content creator play.
Fortnite simply turned off the faucet and locked the login.
Even Fortnite’s creative director, Donald Mustard, couldn’t log in right away, as he wrote. He planned to watch the event on YouTuber Ali-A’s stream.
As Epic announced last night, they had limited the player count to 12 million to ensure stability. They were “overwhelmed by how the event was received”:
- 12 million watched the event live in Fortnite
- 8.4 million more followed the event on Twitch and YouTube.
Epic explains: While they continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, they want to work on improving the systems so that more players can be in the game.
How many players are there actually? The 12 million concurrent players in Fortnite are, by the way, not a record for player count. There had been more before: at one event featuring musician Travis Scott in April 2020.
Apparently, the experience from the Travis Scott event contributed to Epic putting a cap at 12 million players this time to ensure stability. That a new viewer record on Twitch resulted from this is a side effect that Epic is surely happy to take.
If you want to see what so many viewers were following on Twitch and YouTube: We have a summary of the event “The Device” in Fortnite on MeinMMO with a video of the event:
Fortnite: This is how the big live event went: The Device – Video, new storm
