In Fortnite , a crisis on the Twitch platform seems to be emerging. The viewer numbers have clearly dropped. For about 3 months now, the situation has been troubling. Fortnite coped fairly well with the departure of Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, but since Turner “Tfue” Tenney is currently on break, the numbers are low. However, the problems seem to run deeper: the hype appears to be wearing off, and the major World Cup did not help.
What numbers are we talking about? We are referring to the “average viewer numbers” for the Fortnite category on Twitch. This includes all channels that have tagged their stream with Fortnite.
The site Sullygnome provides accurate information on how the viewer numbers have developed over time.
How long did the hype around Fortnite last exactly?
The viewer numbers for Fortnite have developed as follows since 2018:
The general hype around Fortnite began in the spring of 2018. From January to March, the viewer numbers rose sharply. From an average of 50,000 viewers to about 180,000 – the peak at that time was the stream of Ninja with Drake, which many people watched.
This average of 180,000 viewers was maintained by Fortnite, with some fluctuations, until September. The period from March to September 2018 is retrospectively considered the “very hot phase” of Fortnite. The game became mainstream during this time.
After that, the average numbers settled at about 150,000. This phase lasted from September 2018 to June 2019. During this time, it felt as if Fortnite would “never go away.”
World Cup is the highlight – but before that a lull and after that as well
From June 2019, the air on Twitch noticeably diminished. The numbers fell to about 100,000 viewers on average.
In August 2019, Twitch streamer Ninja quit and switched platforms to Mixer. However, this hardly affected the viewer numbers on Twitch; Fortnite was already somewhat out of fashion and remained at the lower level that it had been at since June 2019.
A further drop came now with the break of Turner “Tfue” Tenney. He announced on Friday, September 13th, that he would no longer stream.
In the last 7 days, the viewer numbers have collapsed to an average of 82,000.
The Twitch viewer numbers for Fortnite at a glance:
- Fortnite in 2018: 155,046 viewers
- Fortnite in the last 365 days: 139,141 viewers
- In the last 90 days: 115,040 viewers
- In the last 30 days: 96,128 viewers
- In the last 7 days: 82,679 viewers
- In the last 3 days: 68,273 viewers
eSports change Twitch numbers
This is noticeable: There has been a significant change in viewer behavior since April 2019.
Until then, the viewer numbers were fairly evenly distributed throughout the week. Since April, there have been noticeable peaks on Saturdays and Sundays – otherwise, the viewer numbers are low.
This is likely related to the fact that qualification tournaments for the World Cup were held on Saturdays and Sundays.
The top streamers were also gearing up for these days and focused on them. As a result, interest in “regular” Fortnite was probably not as high on other days.
The interesting thing is that Fortnite still declined on Twitch in June 2019, despite the big World Cup.
The event itself, the Fortnite World Cup, did achieve high viewer numbers, but there was a lull before and directly after it. Fortnite was unable to capitalize on the World Cup in the long term.
Even before the World Cup, the air was noticeably gone
What’s behind this: One can see in the Twitch numbers that Ninja’s departure had hardly any impact.
When Ninja left, he was hardly present on Twitch anymore, and Fortnite was already in decline. Even before the Fortnite World Cup, it was clear that the air was gone – and the World Cup did not provide any significant boost.
In recent days, interest in Fortnite seems to have continued to diminish: Fortnite can hardly compensate for the departure of Tfue. In addition, competition has now significantly increased with new games compared to the long drought phase of recent months when nothing was happening in the gaming market.
The main problem of Fortnite does not seem to be the departure of individual streamers at the moment. The issue appears to be more complex:
- Epic is currently struggling to keep the game “fresh”
- After a year and a half, the hype is waning
- After a long dry spell, alternatives for streamers and viewers are now emerging – WoW Classic, in particular, is attracting many
- The top stars are certainly missing, rather Tfue than Ninja
- And the eSports of Fortnite does not seem to have really helped the viewer numbers on Twitch in the long term – without the World Cup, the kick after a big highlight is seemingly lacking now
