Fortnite: Battle Royale is immensely successful. While PUBG is still better positioned, it does not hold that status in the West. Could Fortnite perhaps be the biggest game in Europe and the USA? At least Epic is bringing this idea into play.
Fortnite: Battle Royale was released in mid-2017 as a standalone PvP mode for Fortnite. The colorful battle royale mode had barely launched when there was already trouble with Bluehole, the studio behind the battle royale flagship PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). It was alleged that the Fortnite developers at Epic had created a copy of PUBG.
However, nothing could stop the triumphant rise of Fortnite: Battle Royale. The game was free to play. Additionally, it offered players on the consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One a battle royale game. And that was long before PUBG was released on Xbox.
For PS4 players, Fortnite is still the only major battle royale title available.
Fortnite: Battle Royale has over 2 million concurrent players!
The triumphant rise of Fortnite shows no signs of stopping, and player numbers continue to climb. Currently, over 40 million players have registered for Fortnite: Battle Royale. Of those, over 2 million play regularly at the same time at peak!
That’s a lot, but the big competitor PUBG now has over 3 million concurrent players. Does Fortnite’s player count only suffice for 2nd place?
Without China, Fortnite is ahead
PUBG has millions of players, but it must be noted that about 60 percent of them come from China. However, there is no Fortnite there. So if we exclude the Chinese players, Fortnite: Battle Royale would likely be ahead.
In an interview with Eurogamer, lead systems designer Eric Williamson stated, that according to some people, Fortnite is really the biggest battle royale game in the West. At least that’s what some of the folks in the office think – and that’s pretty wild.
Others even went further and said: Fortnite might even be the biggest game overall in the West!
Fortnite continues on its path to success
Mein MMO thinks: The statement about the battle royale genre is certainly valid at the moment. However, whether Fortnite is generally the biggest game in the West is open to question. After all, the MOBA giant League of Legends claims this spot with millions of players. It’s unknown how many players are playing simultaneously or how player numbers vary by region.
But regardless of whether Fortnite now “only” leads the battle royale genre or generally has the largest player base in the West: The colorful shooting continues to be on a path to success in 2018! Soon the map should be thoroughly renewed among other things.
Here you can find a list of upcoming battle royale games in 2018.
