The ridiculously impressive stats just keep rolling in for Epic Games' battle royale success Fortnite. According to Bloomberg, the game now has 200 million registered players.
To put that number into perspective, 200 million people almost makes up the entire population of Brazil and, were it a country, it would comfortably sit within the top ten list of the most populated. Of course, the active player base is significantly lower, with many accounts naturally now dormant as players have moved on; the last figure we received for this was in August, which recorded 78.3 million active players.
This number is still growing at an impressive rate, too; this new total represents a 60% increase from the 125 million figure provided by Epic Games in June, and it's five times the number given back in January.
An official platform breakdown for the total hasn't been provided, so it's impossible to know what percentage of users play the game on Switch, but it's pretty safe to say that the number will be significant. Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed that the game had been downloaded 2 million times on Switch just in its first day on the eShop, then we had confirmation that the game had been downloaded to nearly half of all Switch consoles worldwide by October, and the company has also released a hardware bundle specifically targetting the Fortnite-loving masses.
Love it or hate it, Fortnite is an almighty force to be reckoned with and it certainly seems here to stay. Do you still aim for those Victory Royales on Switch? Let us know with a comment.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 40
Shame it controls and runs like dog (IMO)
Please make it go away lol
Impressive indeed. My kids and all their buds play almost daily. It's great to watch them all on their mics strategizing and having fun with one another. Game is definitely not for me but happy for their success!
I don’t play this game, but I’m glad it’s on switch. We seriously need more mainstream multiplayer shooters on the console. This and Warframe are great but missing out on COD and battlefield are significant omissions. It still makes no sense COD hasn’t come over since we had COD on the Wii U. Even the Nintendo DS had COD...
I admit, I got sucked back in during the whole "Fortnitemares" Halloween event. But as soon as it ended my interest shifted back over to Splatoon for all my online multiplayer needs.
That's the thing about Fortnite though... I'll always keep popping in to see what's going on every few weeks to go gawk at a crack or a big cube, then immediately lose interest again. I suppose it's an effective business model, since it's definitely kept me from uninstalling the game and being done with it all.
The power of Switch... I mean, the power of mobile phones.
@beazlen1 On Xbox One X it looks and run flawlessly, unlike PUBG.
I haven't played this game for 2 months i think. I don't really like the building aspect, just annoys me. But the controls is what really kills it for me, it just sucks compared to Splatoons silky smooth and super precise motion controls.
Fortnite holds a record in my book as well.
I've never deleted a game this fast after downloading it and giving it a go. I expect this record of mine to stand in many years to come.
@Aneira
Paladins lasted like 3 minutes, following a 30 minute download.
Tabloid style headline. How much of that total does Switch account for? 5%? If even, it's likely much lower. I think a lot of Switch owners out of curiosity downloaded it to see how it looks and performs. I'd say a small percentage actually actively play it on Switch, I know I don't. You need good online and you can't get that most of the time when you're out and about, also using the Joy-Cons is like having little pieces of faeces in your hands. And if you're at home, you may as well play it on a decent system. Let's see Epic or Nintendo give us figures for how many people actively play it on Switch.
I stopped playing months ago, but it's a fun, free game that doesn't cost anything on your part but time and storage space. I'm glad it has its fans.
People who don't like Fortnite but visit these articles to comment anyway are just the best. Eminently cool and I can only wistfully aspire to obtain their great insight before my days are past.
I fell out of the game early in season 6. I recently tried a few games recently and it feels SO much better. It's almost like a different game. Food fight is my new favorite game mode now.
-500% interest in the game
I mean, Fortnite really is everywhere. Even just walking past a Primark downtown their whole window display was Fornite apparel.
Funny how you can sell a lot of stuff based on a free to play game.
Me and my girlfriend enjoy dropping in every now and then for a quick game but it's not something i'd throw any money at... good for a quick match but not something i'd put any prolonged amount of time into. Although for people who are into it i can see why, the constant updates and changing map are at least signs that Epic do care about keeping things interesting for their player base, and somewhat justify splashing out on the battle passes.
@TheGhostWhoWalks while this is only based on my friends list, so it is a small sample size, but even with all the games available this holiday season the vast majority of people who I see online are playing fortnite. And when I check their play times they are usually 200+ hours so I think switch users are just as likely to play this game as any user on any other console would be.
It is free, and I imagine a great deal of those users are people like me who downloaded the game, played a match or two out of curiosity, and never returned.
Are they counting me in that number because I only played it for a couple of weeks and have no intention of going back.
Stats are for geeks here!
I still pop in every week or two for a quick match and to see challenges. It was a good play to keep my interest while waiting for other games. I’m not gonna knock it, it’s free and keeps me coming back. Smash will have a problem with me doing that for awhile next weekend, though 😂
I gave it a good 100+ hours when it first came out on the Switch to give it the chance to grow on me but I eventually came to the conclusion that its controls are just too awful to be fun and I uninstalled it. You get what you pay for I guess.
It’s free and voice chat works.
It’s free and I can crossplay with my siblings/friends/family. It’s OK in my book.
To quote Moot, “Fortnite has spread like an infectious plague that saps the life out of everything it touches.”
Want a great F2P game? Check out Warframe or Paladins. Fortnite is trash.
Well the Switch's contribution to those 200m registered players can't be that big, that's simple math.
Even if every Switch owner had downloaded and registered Fortnite, it would only make up 10% of the player base.
Obviously the real numbers will be lower.
I'm just glad I grew up long before this type of game started to dominate kids playing time, they seem to have so little imagination these days
It's a fun little game and I love it on Switch. Sure it's not perfect but I would've loved to have a game this popular be playable on every console during my childhood. That way, instead of arguing over what system has what particular games that make that system better, kids can all equally enjoy it together no matter what cobsole they play on.
I'm happy that the current generation is finding ways to bring those who play video games together.
Fortnite is like when a band you like gets super commercially popular and you pretend to hate them because they are popular now.
It's not a bad game. I get that people like to hate on it. The popularity has been its undoing. That being said I'm pretty sure 90% of the negative commenters just saw the word Fortnite and decided to write something negative.
Lets see. multiple platforms and multiple accounts considering they wouldn't let you cross platform for the longest and those tens of millions that tried the game and then quit after a week. That and the 10s of millions that no longer play and those accounts that Epic refuses to delete at the users request. Yea I would say active users are not even 5 million. Registered and active are way different.
@Ryzaerian Why do you have such hate to it? I started playing Fortnite again and buying the battle pass after deleting it a few months ago because Anti-Fortniters are even more annoying than 12 year old Fortnite addicts. I deleted Fortnite because I hated the controls, but they have fixed it and do a lot to polish their game, It's great fun and if it was trash, I don't think 200 million accounts would be registered.
@Dirty0814 You're wrong, I can find a game within 2 minutes on any platform.
Nintendo fans really need to stop being little nonces about Fortnite and deal with it. I am a long-time Nintendo fan, and I love Fortnite, the game has, for the most part, been getting better and better. And a good percent of the community is Ok too. The game is good, you may hate it cause it's popular, it may not be your preferable game to play, but it is still a good game.
@Jarate
It’s not that it exists. It’s that most of us are tired of having it shoved down our throats through obvious, paid advertisements posing as articles.
Go through the archives on this site and see just how many pointless, sycophantic, promotional propaganda pieces been written about this game. No substance. Just purchased ass-kissing.
And we don’t hate it because it’s popular. We hate it because it’s overhyped trash riding a marketing campaign.
@Ryzaerian You hate it because its overhyped? I agree its overhyped, and I agree its oversaturated and marketed everywhere. You can't say a game is trash because its overhyped and marketed everywhere, you can say, "I hate it because I don't prefer it", but you cannot try to push your opinion on others because you hate its oversaturation.
@jarate
Sure I can. I tell anyone who will listen that Fortnite is trash. I’m thinking about forming a religion about it.
And if it makes you feel better, I also hate it because it’s an awful game. I despise the battle royale fad.
@Ryzaerian The game isn't awful if millions play it, it has constant updates and listens to its community and eSports players.
@Jarate
Millions of people bought Vanilla Ice records.
Don’t confuse marketing with quality. I’ve played the game. It’s trash riding a fad.
I'm just happy that Fortnite is raking in the cash and players now and not PUBG. I found the publisher for PUBG to be arrogant in thinking only they should have the right to make "battle-royale"-style games (hello, game concepts are not patentable, thank God) and even sued (then dropped, lol) Epic Games out of enviousness of Fortnite's bigger player base.
@Ryzaerian Haha good point. There's nothing wrong with a bit of Ice, Ice, Baby though! Rick Astley on the other hand...
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