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.

Registered Users: The Numbers Behind Gaming's Biggest Platforms

The scale of today's gaming platforms is staggering. Roblox projects 8.6 billion accounts by 2025—exceeding Earth's population of 8.2 billion—while Fortnite reached 650 million registered users in 2023.

Raw registration numbers tell only part of the story. Roblox users show deeper platform engagement, spending an average of 2.5 hours daily within its ecosystem. Fortnite's growth from 20 million users in 2017 to 650 million in 2023 reflects a more measured but consistent expansion.

Both platforms face similar challenges with account duplication and inactive users. For a clearer picture of true popularity, daily active user (DAU) metrics provide better insight: Roblox maintains 88.9 million daily active players, while Fortnite shows more seasonal fluctuations in its daily engagement patterns.

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.

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.

Fortnite is an online battle royale video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. Fortnite events on the video streaming service Twitch were watched by an average of 49,000 viewers in June 2025. Engagement with the game spiked after the re-release of the original map in November 2023 as part of the OG season, as well as the launch of Lego Fortnite in December 2023.

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.

Thanks to his second place finish at the Fortnite World Cup Finals in 2019, Jaden Ashman, also known as Wolfiez, is the highest earning Fortnite player from the United Kingdom as of January 2025. Ashman's earnings from the game reaching 1.37 million U.S. dollars, making him the only player based in the UK to hit the six-figure mark for career earnings.

In November 2023, battle royale title Fortnite launched the OG season, taking players back to the original Chapter 1 map and re-introducing various in-game items from the earliest seasons of the game. The nostalgia was strong in this one, and Fortnite players on Xbox and PlayStation consoles spent nearly 1.48 billion hours on the online title in November 2023, up by 146 percent from the hours spent on Fortnite in the preceding month.

The 2019 World Cup finals remained the top Fortnite tournament of all time, with a peak viewership of 2.33 million viewers. Most of the most viewed Fortnite eSports tournaments were from the game's early years of popularity. However, some more recent tournaments such as the FNCS 2024 Global Championship in September 2024 still managed to crack the top charts.

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 *** U.S. dollars in December 2019, more an increase of *** million U.S. dollars compared to the precious month.

Fortnite – the money maker With *** million users registered worldwide in early 2020, it is no wonder that Fortnite is making its developers, Epic Games, a lot of money. The game has found the most success in the United States, where it generated a staggering ** million U.S. dollars in its first year after release. Given the nature of the game and the trend in gaming as a whole, it will come as no shock that the vast majority of Fortnite players in the United States were male, with over ** percent falling into the 18-34 age category.

In-game purchases key to success Given that Fortnite is a free-to-play game, how does it generate such a vast amount of revenue? The answer lies, as with many other commercially successful free-to-play games, in in-game purchases. According to a survey carried out in the United States in February 2020, about 77 percent of Fortnite players admitted to making in-game purchases. Using their hard-earned cash to purchase V-Bucks, gamers then use the game’s currency to buy upgrades ranging from outfits and characters to gliders. What’s more, almost ** percent of U.S. Fortnite players confessed to spending money on emotes, which allow their character to celebrate their kills and victories with elaborate dance moves.

France Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 18.000 Score in 15 May 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 21.000 Score for 14 May 2025. France Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 26.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 15 May 2025, with 1262 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 02 Nov 2024 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 14 Feb 2023. France Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s France – Table FR.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.

Kyle Giersdorf, more commonly known by his gamertag Bugha, was the most successful Fortnite player in the United States based on prize money earnings as of January 2025. Giersdorf's total career earnings through Fortnite, as of that month, exceeded 3.7 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, Harrison Chang aka psalm came in second place with total career earnings amounting to around 1.87 million U.S. dollars. eSports tournament prize pools Professional eSports players can earn up to millions of dollars in prize money at international competitions. As of the year-end 2024, the Dota 2 championships had amassed the highest cumulative prize pool from eSports games worldwide. The International, which is a Dota 2 tournament, was the most lucrative eSports tournament worldwide, with the winners of the 2021 iteration of The International walking away with approximately 40 million U.S. dollars. Popular battle royale games Battle royale games are multiplayer games which combine aspects of free-for-all or team-based shooters with components from survival games, such as having to scavenge for equipment within a hostile open-world environment. As of January 2025, Fortnite was the most popular PlayStation 5 game based on monthly active users worldwide, ranking above entries such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto V. When it came to the most streamed battle royale games worldwide Fortnite also took the top spot, surpassing Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone, which racked up 4.7 million weekly viewer hours in March 2025.

Finland Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 12.000 Score in 14 May 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 13.000 Score for 13 May 2025. Finland Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 22.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 14 May 2025, with 1261 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 02 Nov 2024 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 21 Jun 2023. Finland Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Finland – Table FI.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.

According to a February 2020 survey of Fortnite gamers in the United States, ** percent of respondents played Fortnite roughly *** to *** hours per week, while **** percent admitted to playing for ** weekly hours or more.

Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 17.000 Score in 14 May 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 16.000 Score for 13 May 2025. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 25.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 14 May 2025, with 1261 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 02 Nov 2024 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 08 Mar 2023. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Belgium – Table BE.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.

Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 14.000 Score in 14 May 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 15.000 Score for 13 May 2025. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 20.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 14 May 2025, with 1261 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 25 Dec 2023 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 10 Apr 2023. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Peru – Table PE.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.

Battle royale game Fortnite has hosted several high-profile in-game events which have drawn millions of players worldwide and are also immensely popular on streaming platforms. In December 2023, Fortnite hosted an in-game Eminem concert as part of its Big Bang Event, the finale of the then-ending OG season. The concert was a success, peaking at 3 million concurrent streaming viewers.

Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 19.000 Score in 14 May 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 20.000 Score for 13 May 2025. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 24.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 14 May 2025, with 1261 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 01 Dec 2024 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 23 Mar 2023. Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Russian Federation – Table RU.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.

This statistic shows the revenue of Fortnite mobile from Apple App Store worldwide in 2018. According to the data, Fortnite mobile grossed *** million U.S dollars on iOS in 2018, averaging *** million U.S. dollars per day.

Liberia Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data was reported at 0.000 Score in 14 May 2025. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 Score for 13 May 2025. Liberia Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data is updated daily, averaging 0.000 Score from Dec 2021 (Median) to 14 May 2025, with 1261 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 Score in 19 Oct 2024 and a record low of 0.000 Score in 14 May 2025. Liberia Google Search Trends: Online Games: Fortnite data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Google Trends. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Liberia – Table LR.Google.GT: Google Search Trends: by Categories.