It was only a passing mention in a livestream, but it was definitely the most significant moment of the night from a Fortnite news perspective. By last count, as stated by Epic in January, Fortnite had 40 million players after adding a battle royale mod to its base game. Tonight, Epic revealed during their Fortnite World Cup esports announcement that the game has swelled to 125 million six months later.
While it’s an astonishing figure, I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise, per se. I am a little confused why Epic didn’t make a big deal at 100 million, but I expected them to be around that point by now, given how much Fortnite has absolutely blown up after the last few months.
How does that stack up to other games? It makes it, unsurprisingly, the biggest game that we know of, perhaps outside of some select mobile titles. It is likely mobile that is responsible for the breach of 100 million, as that has opened up Fortnite to an avalanche of potential new players. Now with a Switch launch, that number will inevitably grow even more. League of Legends, which has long been the most popular non-mobile game in the world, has previously boasted about 100 million monthly players, but I can’t imagine the rise of Fortnite has allowed it to stay that high, though I don’t believe the 125 million figure is monthly.
Still, it’s undeniably impressive, there’s no two ways about it, and in the wake of this enormous success, Epic has kept a steady hand on the wheel, refusing to allow the game to drown in bugs and cheaters, constantly adding in new content updates weekly, be they new weapons or in season 4, new map additions. Its season rotation is now one of the most-anticipated events in gaming every ten weeks, and from my own coverage perspective, I have not seen a game draw this much interest since Pokémon GO two years ago. And even if that game had more total players, I have certainly seen a much higher level of sustained interest in Fortnite, which seems like it still may not have peaked, despite its recent world domination.
I am hoping that we’ll be able to get some more detailed stats from Epic soon. 125 million is a good start, but I’d love a more detailed breakdown of the playerbase, daily players, concurrent players, but since Epic is a private company, they only share what they have to.
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Fortnite has been a gaming and pop culture phenomenon unlike anything else in recent memory. And in some ways, it still feels like it’s only just getting started.
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