There’s no doubt that Fortnite is one of the world’s most popular games, but thanks to Epic we can now put some numbers behind that statement. On Thursday, the developer announced that the game had 78.3 million players in August.
So, how big does that make Fortnite exactly? It’s hard to say — the developers behind games with player bases that large rarely even bother letting us know how many people are playing. But we do have a few examples of numbers from some of the most popular games in the world to draw from.
As of December, Minecraft — which remains the biggest game on YouTube — had 74 million players a month. Meanwhile, League of Legends, as of 2016, had just over 100 million active players a month. It’s also worth noting that Fortnite has yet to be released in China, one of the largest markets for online games and battle royale in-particular.
One of the keys to Fortnite’s success has been its massive online streaming community, thanks to popular streamers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, as well as Epic’s consistent updates for the game. Fortnite Battle Royale’s fifth season of content is coming to a close next week, and Epic is currently teasing the launch of Season 6 which should start just a few days later.
Comments
For those who like to dismiss PubG: it has 87 million DAILY active users and 227 million monthly active users.
It’s not an apple to apple comparison, but it absolute terms PubG is more popular for now.
By iHatePickingAName on 09.20.18 7:02pm
Probably a relevant data point here.
By Tekkactus on 09.20.18 7:08pm
Hence the " for now " part of my comment. I mean, news site keep covering Fortnite to no end, but it seems people are not listening and keep playing PubG in higher numbers. I’m curious to see what happens when Fornite releases in China.
By iHatePickingAName on 09.20.18 9:32pm
Not true at all, unless Bluehole is counting dummy accounts created by hackers. https://www.neowin.net/news/pubgs-concurrent-player-count-on-steam-has-fallen-by-over-16-million-since-january
By WireRaven on 09.21.18 11:08am
PUBG counts PC, Xbox and Mobile.
Their stats statement was mid June, when it was at 1.75m peak players for the month on PC. This is not counting Xbox or Mobile.
By Talonia on 09.21.18 12:29pm
Give us average concurrent players. These numbers are meeningless in comparison.
By cavedude on 09.21.18 1:52am
Fortnite has been killing almost every game in concurrent players
By JaySwolo on 09.21.18 3:00am
Hated the hype about fortnite then jumped in and fell in love with it haters will hate
By Donald.J.Trump on 09.21.18 5:42am
I bet 50mil are under 14
By Ohex on 09.21.18 5:44am
I bet there not, bracket will be 7-16 30m 17-30 25m 31 and over 23.3m
By Donald.J.Trump on 09.21.18 5:47am
Wonder how much COD Blackout will affect these numbers. I have heard positive things about the beta.
By xanderalmighty on 09.21.18 7:56am
I suspect not much at all. COD is going to be a 60$ game and Fortnite is free. I wouldn’t be surprised if COD impacted PubG more.
By iHatePickingAName on 09.22.18 3:05pm
Does that mean League is still in the lead? I thought it had been dethroned by Fortnite, barely hear about it anymore at least despite the cool things they’ve added.
By rogueContinuum on 09.21.18 8:10am
How many players did CliffyB’s game have? Like 8? Wasn’t it like literally 8 by the end? The end being a few months after it launched.
By Justopolis on 09.21.18 9:54am
Games like this disgust me. Not because they are bad but because of the ripple effect through the industry that they cause. Lets take the MOBA genre for instance. Multiple companies jumped on the hype train for MOBAs when they saw how popular it was becoming and how much money it has made. This led to once great game companies, like valve, to stop creating actual story driven memorable gaming experiences. Are you ever going to hear about how Gordon Freeman had to battle with mesa in a MOBA? Will you ever get to experience that tragic beginning in the beginning of the last of us if naughty dog only made MOBAs and battle royale games?
This is why it disgusts me. We are pulling great talent in the industry and diverting it towards cash cows like fortnite, pubg, mobas, the overwatch shooters, etc. It is pulling talent away from companies like blizzard, valve, EA, etc. to making these games that will honestly be forgotten in history when the fad dies out.
Will anyone ever forget Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, and Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time? I don’t think they will. Do people constantly talk about that arena shooter that they played 15 years ago? Nope.
I am just saying, these games seem like a lot of fun… but its causing a ripple effect where talent could be used to make a better interactive and story driven experience for gamers. At the very least they could attempt to add story driven spin offs or narratives about these games like Destiny 2 has attempted to do. But no, there isnt much lore to a PUBG, Fortnite, or MOBA. Could we have the next diablo 4 by now or even a diablo mmo if blizzard wasn’t wasting time focusing on their cash cow moba games and card games? Probably. Would we have half life 3 by now to finally finish the series? Probably.
These games are a cancer to the industry no matter how you slice it. Even games like call of duty are now taking their story out of their game to jump in. This is single handily killing the story driven aspect of gaming.
End Rant.
By cha0t1cen1gma on 09.21.18 12:50pm
There are still PLENTY of FFVII, LoZ, and other story driven type games on the market right now though. It hasn’t created such a rift now where those games are really dwindling in numbers. Take God of War for example, non battle royale, MOBA, or shooter that is widely regarded as one of the best games of the year
By zeegee on 09.22.18 12:25pm