Fortnite: Battle Royale’s<\/em> cultural hold isn’t loosening up. Epic Games has amassed 200 million registered players for the popular battle royale game, according to Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>
It’s a 60 percent jump in registered users since June, when developer Epic Games announced it had reached the 125 million mark for\u00a0Fortnite<\/em>. In January, Epic said the game had 40 million players\u2014a number that sounds paltry compared to the new figure. Registered users, however, don’t equate to active users; Epic said<\/a> in early November it had reached 8.3 million concurrent players around the world.<\/p>
Related: Fortnite<\/a><\/em> Winter Royale is the next phase of <\/a>Fortnite\u2019s <\/a><\/em>competitive season<\/a><\/strong><\/p>
Fortnite’s<\/em> success can be attributed to a number of different factors. Despite being an early access game, the 100-player battle royale title is a cultural phenomenon worldwide, and it just keeps expanding. A boost in numbers\u2014both registered and concurrent players\u2014is likely thanks to the game’s recent release in South Korea<\/a> and continued expansion to new platforms. The game is available everywhere<\/em> players are: in PC bangs in Korea, on smartphones, on console, on PC. And better yet, it’s free to play on all devices.<\/p>
Epic is injecting a lot of money into the game, both on the casual and competitive fronts.\u00a0Fortnite’s\u00a0<\/em>competitive scene has a $100 million prize pool<\/a> for the 2018 to 2019 season, spread across a series of different skirmish-style events.\u00a0Fortnite’s<\/a><\/em>\u00a0Winter Royale is ongoing<\/a>, offering up a $1 million prize to the top players. Qualifiers have just finished, and finals tournaments for the European and North American regions will begin soon.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
