Fortnite: More than 200 million people have now played Battle Royale game

Game is now available to download on just about anything with a screen

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 28 November 2018 12:53 EST
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Fortnite now has more than 200 million players, marking the latest stage of its intensely fast growth.

The battle royale game – which throws 100 players onto an island and has them fight against each other to survive – smashed through the 40 million record in January. But it has kept growing, marking a 60 per cent improvement even since June.

Over that time, the game has become a pop cultural phenomenon, as well as one of the biggest games ever to have been released. It has been referenced across popular culture and has raised vast amounts of money through microtransactions.

Fortnite's growth has been propelled by it gradually becoming available on a wide range of different platforms, to the point that it can now be downloaded on just about any device. It is also entirely free to download, though quickly starts encouraging players to pay for more features and outfits within the game.

It was fully released on iPhones and iPads in April, came to the Nintendo Switch in June and has been gradually rolling out across Android. It can now be played on everything from the smallest phone to the biggest console.

Epic Games, the developers of Fortnite, has been valued at over $15 billion according to Bloomberg, which reported the news. It has been repeatedly raising money from investors, some of which has been used to fund esports competitions and other projects intended to prolong the vast interest in the game.

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