Released on July 21, 2017, Fortnite quickly became popular with the arrival of its Battle Royale mode almost three months later, on September 26, 2017. Riding on the success of Battle Royale, Epic Games' cartoonish style allowed their game to pull out of the game, thus transforming it into a global fad that has lasted since December 2017. However, many claim that Fortnite is already dead and buried.
A little less than two years later, Fortnite seems to be losing momentum, even dead. It counts fewer and fewer views on the various streaming and video hosting platforms. Add to this the various controversies on various subjects that have persisted or begun since the launch of season 7 in December 2018, many players now feel alienated when it comes time to play.
A foreseeable fall?
Although a general decline in interest in Fortnite was to be expected, the various publicly available statistics show truly distinct and disproportionate spikes compared to other games. This sudden lack of interest in the game can be explained by various reasons, but faithfully corresponds to the arrival of the first controversies: those concerning the Infinity Blade and the planes, the X-4 Aquilon.
Arrived for season 7, these two items have been the subject of many more or less lively debates within the community, but mainly among professional and semi-professional players. From then on, some players began to consider migrating to other games, starting with some of the biggest influencers, such as DrLupo, Michou or even mzQQQ, who withdrew from the competitive scene for several weeks in favor of Apex Legends. From then on, Fortnite was declared dead by detractors.
We failed by releasing the Infinity Edge too powerful / without a really effective parry, especially in the late game.
So we've decided to put this one away immediately and will re-evaluate our approach to mythic items.
Thank you for your feedback!
As soon as the machine was launched, backtracking was no longer possible. Each new choice made by Epic Games had become open to criticism and criticism, leading to the launch of a much less anticipated Season 8 than the previous ones, but also a slow descent towards similar interest to what Minecraft was receiving at the time.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
At the same time, the announcement for the Fortnite World Cup, and its ten weeks of preliminary qualification, caused a lot of talk, in particular with its mind-blowing cash prize: 40 million dollars in total, making this prize pool the largest existing to date. in video game competitions, although "The International" 2019, the Dota 2 World Cup, reached 34 million dollars.
With such sums at stake, many players have participated, not out of a spirit of competition, but out of the lure of gain, without ever hiding it. One of the best examples is Tfue, a top player in the Fortnite scene, who said he would stop all competition on the game when the World Cup was over.
Despite everything, Fortnite's numbers saw a sharp increase in July, during the final stages of the World Cup, and at the release of Season X. However, the latter is the source of much contention, whether it is Whether it's the BRUTEs problem, or some unwelcome changes...
Is Fortnite dead, or about to die?
No, Fortnite is not dead, and is far from dying today or in the years to come. A true cornerstone of the end of the second decade of the 2s, Epic Games' Battle Royale marked a big blow in the video game industry. Free-to-play with purchase option, Fortnite has proven that seriousness is not necessary to make a game interesting or immersive, and that on the contrary, it is by constantly making modifications that the interest audience grows.
Although many controversies revolve around Epic Games' choices, whether by integrating insane and unbalanced objects, by changing overnight one of the main mechanics of the game, which is turbo building, or even the sums astronomical amounts that the company invests in eSports. The latter know how to adapt, not hesitating, every 3 months, to review their entire game to improve it.
However, it is true that these numerous tests carried out by Epic Games ended up boring many players, who then turned to other games. The opening of a private Minecraft server by Michou notably contributed to diverting some French-speaking players, but also boycotting DrLupo's streams, encouraging his community to join him, and thus turn to Minecraft.
The new Minecraft fashion
It's no secret that Minecraft has remained in the hearts of many players in the scene, whether for its UHC (the ancestor of Battle Royale?) or for the charm of its survival mode. And the release of new game modes on the Hypixel international server hasn't helped Fortnite's loss of momentum.
Influencers, each in their own way, have been tempted by a return to the source. Whether on the French side with Aypierre's comeback on Twitch and the survival adventure of Laink and Terracid, or internationally with the new Minecraft passion made in PewDiePie, they have played in favor (or against) of the drop in Epic Games' in-game stats.
But despite falling stats, Fortnite doesn't have to worry about its future. Interest in this game is still much higher than for others that have been around for more than 10 years and yet are still popular, such as World of Warcraft or League of Legends.
