Imagine coming home from a day in elementary school and rushing to get home in order to turn on your Xbox, PC or PlayStation. You sprint inside your home take your shoes off and throw your backpack in the corner of your room. You boot up your gaming platform and prepare to open the game you just downloaded last week because your friends told you to get it and play with it. You are excited and anxious to play this game. What is this game you may ask? The game is Fortnite.
You see, Fortnite Battle Royale was released by Epic Games on Sept. 26, 2017. With a whopping 250 million players in 2019, it had up to 500 million in March of 2023. We can see the growth, but why? Fortnite is a game where you and 99 other players fight to be the only one standing; there can only be one winner. With the first season being new to players, Fortnite began to release cosmetics that cost virtual currency (V-Bucks) that players could spend real money on and buy in-game.
In the first 10 seasons of chapter 1 (there are currently 6 chapters right now as of 2025), Fortnite did not have many collaborations. In season 4, Fortnite released Thanos as a part of a collaboration with Avengers Infinity War. In season 7, they released DJ and song producer Marshmellow as an in-game “skin” and even a concert. In season 2 of chapter 2, they went to another concert for rapper Travis Scott. In the future, they went on to have a concert for Ariana Grande, Snoop Dogg, Ice Spice, Eminem, and Juice Wrld.
With all these collaborations and the countless cosmetics that have been released since the game came out, Epic Games has made serious cash. Many players are younger but there are also a lot of adults that play as well. As of 2025, Epic Games is worth $32 Billion with all the in-game accessories they have released since its release in 2017. To put this into retrospective, my personal Fortnite account is worth about $2000. I have happily contributed to Fortnite’s revenue and success.
Another reason Fortnite is still thriving in 2025 is due to game mode diversity. There are thousands of player-created games that people can play with a similar nature to Roblox. These games allow for diversity and versatility for players not looking to play the main game mode.
To those who think Fortnite is simply a “child’s game” or a “dead game,” check the numbers and statistics. You will be proven wrong when you think Fortnite does not have a huge player base. With all the content that Fortnite promotes, it continues to reel in new players as well as bring back old players who quit playing in the past. I am a gamer. As a gamer, I have played countless video games. Out of every game I have ever played, Fortnite has called my attention the most. On Xbox, I have 166 days, 9 hours, and 23 minutes played on Fortnite. On my PlayStation 5, I have 849 hours played. This massive video game has taken so much time out of my life and it was all worth it.
