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Is Fortnite dying? Since Epic Games released its competitive and free-to-play FPS battle royale game back in 2017, there has always been speculation about its decline.
In the cynical world in which we live, success will always inevitably be met with people trying to tear it down or predict its demise. However, what we can confirm today is that, while Fortnite has hit some bumps in the road over the years, Epic Games are proving the naysayers wrong.
The short answer to this question is that yes, Fortnite is very much still popular. The stats show that the active player base has grown for this game year on year.
This is something that is expected for most successful games in the first few years, however, usually the numbers tend to stagnate and plateau at some point. Often, the numbers will drop and rise over time.
This is a fate that has befallen even some of the seemingly most unwaverable competitive online games, including League of Legends. However, as you can see from the stats below, Fortnite has steadily increased its popularity.
To prove there’s no truth in the rumours that Fortnite is dying, here are the stats for the total yearly active number of players since its release by Epic Games back in 2017. Keep in mind that this is based on the number of active players, and doesn’t count inactive users.
As of November 2024, there are more than 650 million active users.
Year | Number of Players |
---|---|
2017 | 20 million |
2018 | 125 million |
2019 | 250 million |
2020 | 300 million |
2021 | 350 million |
2022 | 390 million |
2023 | 400 million |
2024 | 500+ million (projected figure) |
As we said at the top of this article, all games that have had any widespread success come to a point where they are hit with YouTubers and bloggers claiming that they are “dying”. At the end of the day, most people use such headliners for clicks and views.
That being said, there was a point when there was some credible truth to the notion that Fortnite was dying. Around 2020, three years after its release, there was a feeling that Fortnite was going a bit stale.
Epic Games had ridden the game’s initial wave of popularity for a bit too long without making any big changes or developments. Since then, however, each chapter has brought significant changes including news skins and POIs.
Chapter 5 is so far proving to be the most popular yet, which is why experts are predicting a 100 million jump in the number of active players in 2024.
The question that we really should be asking ourselves is why Fortnite isn’t dying. The answer partly lies in some of the aspects that we’ve covered above, as well as updates including new skins and ways to play, Epic Games has released spinoffs to keep players interested, such as Lego Fortnite.
Despite all of the existing new innovations, skins, features and spinoffs, one of the main reasons behind Fortnite’s popularity has been there since the very start - it’s free. In a world where the cost of living crisis is well-documented, free games are always going to find it easy to attract new players.
While there are in-app purchases the free-to-play mode doesn’t restrict your Fortnite experience when compared to other “free” video games. As a result, Epic Games has been successful in maintaining its current player base while attracting new players.
One slight anomaly that the statistics show us is that more than a 5th of the active Fortnite player base is in the USA alone (21.10%). The rest is spread quite thinly throughout the rest of the world, though Russia, Brazil and Poland have notably large Fortnite player numbers as well.
While this doesn’t mean that Fortnite is dying outside of the US, it does show that it is missing out on the Asian market compared to other games. However, should Epic Games find a way to tap into the Asian player base a bit more, there could be a massive Fortnite boom on the horizon.
As well as having a growing player base, Fortnite is traditionally ranked among the most popular esports on free bets apps.
If you fancy betting on a competitive esports tournament, today, you can check out the top Fortnite betting sites right here at Strafe.
In summary, after a brief plateau in the early 2020s (is that how we’re referring to this decade?), Fortnite actually appears to be thriving rather than dying. Epic games definitely appear to have some more tricks up their sleeve, and we’re here for it all here at Strafe.
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