How many people play Fortnite? After bursting onto the scene in 2017, Fortnite has since become a worldwide phenomenon, amassing 650 million players across the globe as of November 2023, up from 400 million in May 2021. Why is Fortnite so popular? The reasons Fortnite has become such a global hit are clear. Not only is the game free to play, but it is also available on most gaming platforms. On top of this, Fortnite's most popular gameplay mode is the battle royale mode, in which up to 100 players fight it at once. This means that the re-playability of the game is infinite – each game is unique. Keeping players engaged with live services Fortnite Battle Royale is also a live service game, meaning that the game receives regular content updates to keep players engaged. Each season of the game roughly lasts 10 weeks and features events such as online concerts, and cosmetic changes. The game’s current iteration is called "鬼HUNTERS (Demon HUNTERS)" with a theme around yōkai, hunters and Japanese culture. Live service games are here to stay By offering cross-platform, multiplayer gaming with a live service schedule, Fortnite covers two of the biggest gaming industry trends, which the majority of the industry intend to follow. A 2023 of global gaming studios found that more than nine in ten studios were either working on or intending to release a live services title. With regular, cadenced, and themed updates to free-to-play games, studios motivate players to keep returning and, eventually, spend not only time but also money on the game. This seems to work for the parent company Epic Games – Fortnite was one of the most downloaded PlayStation F2P game in the EU and North America in 2024.

Having burst onto the scene in 2017, Fortnite has since become a worldwide phenomenon, amassing almost 250 million players across the globe as of March 2019. Having first been released in July 2017, the battle royale game took just two weeks to reach 10 million players, a figure which doubled to 20 million players after only six weeks. In less than a year, the game had acquired a staggering 125 million players.

As of June 2020, battle royale star Fortnite had approximately 80.4 million monthly active users worldwide. This is up from 78.3 million MAU in September 2018. The cross-platform title which was released in July 2017 has been popular right from the start and reported 350 million registered users worldwide in 2020.

According to a February 2020 survey of Fortnite gamers in the United States, respondents had spent an average of ****** U.S. dollars on in-game purchases. Overall, about ** percent of responding Fortnite audiences had spent money on the free-to-play title.

Battle royale game Fortnite has hosted several high-profile in-game events which have drawn millions of players worldwide. The Galactus event, which concluded Fortnite's Marvel-themed season 4 of chapter 2 in November 2020, drew 15.3 million concurrent players and still holds the record to date. In November 2024, Remix: The Finale event set the record for a Fortnite in-game concert, attracting 14.3 million players. Additionally, while not a concert or a special event, the launch of Fortnite OG, featuring the game's original map, in November 2023, was the most successful day for the battle royale title, drawing over 44 million players in a day.

Apex Legends became an instant hit on its release in February 2019. Despite the growth in players slowing down in the months after the game's initial release, Apex Legends crossed 170 million players life-to-date as of October 2024. Apex Legends popular among eSports fans Apex Legends is a battle royale game which pits up to 20 three-person squads against each other in a fight to the death an island. While the game evidently has millions of devoted players, many more experience the game through some of their favorite eSports players. The Respawn Entertainment game is consistently one of the top games streamed on Twitch, with Apex Legends viewers watching in their thousands to see teams battle it out. In June 2024, approximately 7 million hours of Apex Legends were watched on major livestreaming platorms worldwide, making it one of the most popular games on Twitch and illustrating its appeal to both players and viewers alike. The rise of battle royale Battle royale games often include hundreds of players competing against each other at one time and this large-scale game mode has become increasingly popular in recent years thanks to the success of games such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). While many of the games are free to play, players can invest money on in-game purchases, which include upgrades to characters and players. Indeed, player spending in battle royale games often runs into the thousands and spending on PUBG Mobile even surpassed the 1.6 billion U.S. dollar mark in September 2020.

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has become one of the most popular games in the world. The battle royale game, in which up to 100 players fight it out at one time until one player is left standing, generated revenue of 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, down from 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.

After a nearly five-year ban from the Apple App Store and Google Play, the battle royale hit made its return to mobile devices — at least on iOS. After a protracted legal battle between Epic Games and Apple regarding third-party payments, Fortnite returned to the iOS ecosystem in the United States. In May 2025, Fortnite's mobile app revenue amounted to 1.15 million U.S. dollars.

First released at the start of 2017, PUBG: Battlegrounds (previously known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) is one of the most popular games on Steam and had 944,484 peak concurrent players in the last recorded month, July 2025. The highest number of concurrent players was recorded in January 2018 at 3.24 million. One of the biggest games on Steam PUBG gained a devoted legion of fans in a short space of time after its release, and cumulative unit sales of the game hit 75 million in December 2021. The game has also been critically acclaimed — it won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and its free-to-play mobile version for Android and iOS, released in 2018, was nominated for Best Mobile Game at The 2018 Game Awards. This critical success has also translated into commercial success, as the game generated millions of U.S. dollars of revenue, most successfully in the United States. On January 12, 2022, the game has become free to play. Battle of the Battle Royale games PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an online battle royale game in which up to 100 hundred players battle it out until there is only one player or one team left standing. This format of game has become very popular in recent years. While PUBG has a strong following, especially on Steam, it has come under pressure from rival battle royale game Fortnite. First released just several months after PUBG, Fortnite has since become a cultural phenomenon, amassing 500 million registered users in just six years. As of 2025, both PUB and Fortnite are still going strong with their loyal audiences.

Action role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong topped the 2024 list for peak number of concurrent players on the online gaming platform Steam, with 2.4 million peak concurrent players. The action-adventure game Palworld, which was released in January 2024, was ranked second. Is Steam keeping pace with the console giants? The fight for supremacy between PC and console gamers is an eternal one. However, it seems that Steam, the main online PC gaming platform, can still keep up with the console giants. In January 2023, Steam registered a record 33 million simultaneous users at peak time, impressive considering the figure stood at 27.4 million just two years before. One of the main advantages of Steam is the staggering library of games available to users, and it appears that players are not afraid of splashing the cash to play their favorite games.   Battle of the Battle Royale games While PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds reigns supreme in the Steam universe, it has stiff competition in the form of its battle royale brother, Fortnite. First released in July 2017, and not available on Steam, free-to-play Fortnite very quickly amassed millions of players and soon became a worldwide hit. Having scooped the award for Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2018, Epic Games’ smash hit shows no signs of slowing down. But with new players, such as Apex Legends, constantly entering the game, will Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds be able to hold on to their loyal fan bases?

The statistic presents data on the share of Fortnite players who also play other selected gaming franchises worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2018. According to the source, ** percent of Fortnite players worldwide had also played FIFA in the last 12 months.

First released in 2017, the battle royale game Fortnite has become popular with audiences worldwide. The game also has a sizeable eSports segment, and Kyle Giersdorf, also known as Bugha, is the most successful Fortnite eSports player with lifetime earnings from the game of 3.73 million U.S. dollars. Second-ranked David Wang, also known as Aqua, has accumulated about 2.19 million U.S. dollars in winnings from the game.

In 2022, the multi-platform free-to-play (F2P) gaming title Fortnite generated an estimated 4.4 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues. This figure decreased from the previous year when the battle royale title made about 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in revenues.

Based on a ranking of the all-time prize money earned by the leading eSports players in Fortnite from the Netherlands, Rojo, the gamer tag of Dave Jong, outperformed all other players earning a total of over 1.2 million U.S. dollars. Mitr0, the gamer tag of Dmitri Van de Vrie, came second in the ranking with an earning total of approximately 830 thousand U.S. dollars as of January 2025. Fortnite on Twitch The popularity of Fortnite on the streaming platform Twitch waxed and waned greatly throughout the months between January of 2018 and February 2025. The highest peak occurred in July of 2018, with over 205,000 viewers. Since then, the viewership of Fortnite events have decreased overall. Prizemoney in eSports Fortnite tournaments had a cumulative prize pool of approximately 12.27 million U.S. dollars in 2024 – the fourth-largest among all major eSports disciplines in that year. The leader of the ranking that year was Dota 2, with an impressive 23.86 million U.S. dollars in prizes. It was followed by Counter-Strike 2 at over 20.8 million U.S. dollars.

The top earner in the battle royale video game Fortnite from Denmark was the gamer tag Anas. He earned over *** million U.S. dollars in professional Fortnite tournaments in the period from February 2018 to January 2025. In second place came Th0masHD, Thomas Høxbro Davidsen, who earned roughly *** million U.S. dollars' worth of prize money. Epic Games developed the survival and royale battle video game Fortnite in 2017. The different game mode versions are available not only for computers and consoles, but also for handheld and mobile devices.

Michał Kamiński, playing under the ID Kami, was the highest-earning Fortnite player in Poland as of January 2025. Kamiński is the leading Fortnite player in the entire country. Between 2018 and 2025, the e-sports player accumulated over *** million U.S. dollars in prize money earnings.

Based on a ranking of the all-time prize money earned by the leading eSports players in Fortnite from Finland, BELAEU (the gamer tag of Lassi Kallio) outperformed all other players earning a total of 180.56 thousand U.S. dollars as of September 2023. Fortnite on Twitch The popularity of Fortnite on the streaming platform Twitch waxed and waned greatly throughout the months between January 2018 and July 2024. The highest peak occurred in July 2018, with over 205 thousand viewers. Since then, the viewership of Fortnite events has oscillated between around 70 thousand and 160 thousand on average. Prize money in eSports Fortnite tournaments had a cumulative prize pool of approximately 20 million U.S. dollars in 2023 — the fourth largest in that year. The leader of the ranking that year was DOTA 2, with an impressive 30.82 million U.S. dollars in prizes, followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile.

According to figures provided by Airnow, the net revenue made on Fortnite in the Netherlands was highest in July and December 2018. The source defines net revenue as the revenue made with in-app purchases after the stores (Apple App Store and Google Play Store) received their share. As Fortnite is not available on the Google Play Store, the numbers provided here only concern the Apple App Store. Fortnite is a free-to-play Battle Royale video game, where up to 100 players are pitted against each other in a fight for survival until only one player is left standing. Both Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (commonly referred to as PUBG) have received much media attention in 2018 due to their high popularity. Early 2019, another game in this genre started to get attention: Apex Legends.

Since it was first released by developer Bluehole in March 2017, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has developed a loyal legion of fans. While the battle royale game only sold two million copies within the first few months of its Early Access release on Steam, this number had jumped to 50 million units just a year later in June 2018. As of December 2021, PUGB has sold over 75 million units worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In January 2022, the game became free to play, meaning a purchase of the game was no longer necessary to play

One of the biggest games on Steam PUBG is an online multiplayer game which pits up to 100 players against each other at one time. The players must scavenge for weapons and items while killing enemies and trying to survive. The map shrinks over time in order to force the remaining players into combat until only one player or team is left standing. Given the scale of the game, it is unsurprising that it attracts large amounts of players – on the gaming platform Steam, PUBG peaked at almost 3.24 million concurrent players in January 2018. The game is also one of Steam’s biggest draws in terms of hourly average number of players – PUBG averaged almost 177.11 thousand players per hour in 2021. So is the game unrivalled in the battle royale genre?

PUBG’s biggest rival Not if you ask fans of Fortnite. Released by Epic Games in July 2017, just a few months after the launch of PUBG, Fortnite is a similar battle royale survival game. While it is not available on Steam, it can be played on PC as well as on all the main consoles. Similarly to PUBG, Fortnite became an overnight sensation and latest figures have the game at a staggering 350 million registered users. The mobile version of the game has also been a commercial success, generating annual revenue of 455 million U.S. dollars in the Apple App Store in 2018. Given that PUBG won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2017 and Fortnite won the very same award a year later, it seems that the rivalry between these games shows no signs of slowing down.

The statistic shows the leading eSports games in Vietnam in 2018, broken down by number of monthly players. In that year, around 100 million monthly users played the game League of Legends, followed by Fortnite with about *** million monthly players.