Is Fortnite dying? Not even close

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Fortnite Score Royale
And 15 free Battle Stars!
Photo: Epic Games

Growing criticism from professional players and the incredible rise of Apex Legends has led some to believe that Fortnite may be dying out. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The hit battle royale game broke two new records for concurrent players this month, thanks in part to its monumental in-game Marshmello concert.

  • Fortnite has taken the world by storm since it launched its battle royale mode in the fall of 2017. Weekly updates that constantly keep the game feeling fresh, limited-time modes, big in-game events, and its unique gameplay have attracted millions of players and helped it overtake rivals like PUBG.

But there’s a new contender in town. Apex Legends from Respawn Entertainment has quickly taken off since making its debut earlier this month. It attracted 25 million downloads in just one week, making it much more popular than Fortnite at launch.

But should Epic Games be worried? Probably not … yet.

Fortnite breaks more records

Epic confirmed this week that Fortnite broke two new records for concurrent player count this month. A whopping 10.7 million players showed up to enjoy an in-game Marshmello concert on February 2, making it the biggest Fortnite event so far.

On Saturday, February 16, when cracks started appearing on the Battle Royale map ahead of season eight, Fortnite enjoyed its best “non-event day” yet, with 7.6 million concurrent players.

This time last year, the record sat at 3.4 million concurrent players. The day it reached that figure, Epic’s servers got slammed so hard that players experienced major service disruptions. Those servers has obviously been upgraded to support more players now.

Fortnite still going strong

Epic has taken a number of steps to avoid losing too many players to Apex Legends. A big update last week addressed a number of the biggest complaints players had with the game, while season eight, which kicks off early next month, is likely to fix even more.

For now, then, Fortnite isn’t going anywhere. It remains the biggest battle royale game, and it’s likely to hold onto that crown for some time.

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