Record 78.3 million people played Fortnite in August

It's a tidbit that highlights the enduring popularity of Epic Games' last-person-standing shooter, which launched in July 2017.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

That's pretty close to the number of PS4s in the wild. Sweet Jesus. I wonder if there will be a noticeable drop in the September numbers due to the Blackout beta or if the player count will be largely unaffected. I think it's fairly safe to say that COD won't be dealing a fatal blow to Fortnite with numbers like these though. That being said, PUBG's on suicide watch.

If EA are smart, they'll make Criterion's BR mode for Battlefield (Firestorm) free-to-play. It's coming after launch anyway. Fortnite BR wouldn't even be 5% as popular as it is now if it was a premium game. With BF5 looking shaky, this is probably their best bet. They can sell BF5 Vanilla like Fortnite's Save the World mode from the main menu.

[Parasyte]

If Fortnite’s numbers take a dip because of Blackout, I think they will be almost negligible. I see Blackout taking a big chunk out of PUBG though.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Yeah, I agree. I pretty much put forward the same opinion as yours after I stopped blabbering. PUBG's numbers on Steam are falling rapidly although it's still a dominant game on the platform. Blackout is most likely going to do so major damage. Even Battlefield channels are gravitating towards it. We live in an odd time.

[kevnb]

I don’t since most pubg players are on pc and a good chunk of them are in China.

[Kribwalker]

“It was also reportedly bringing in $2 million a day on iOS back in July, while market research group The NPD claims the popularity of Fortnite -- along with its competitor PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds -- has helped push U.S. game spending up by 40 percent.”

Maybe Phil Spencer was on to something when he said SP games don’t have the same impact as GAAS games anymore....

[Felix_Argyle_Catbro]

I'm going to say... nope.

[gangsta_red]

"...he said SP games don’t have the same impact as GAAS games anymore...."

It's definitely a cash beast that keeps on giving in the long run. And if players are having fun with the game weeks, months, years after then what's the harm?

[Sunny_D]

Meanwhile Spider-Man breaks records*

[Kribwalker]

78 million players in one month records, or?

[ActualWhiteMan]

But no MP means high turnaround on used sales. Which definitely affects the developer.

[DarkVoyager]

“78 million players in one month records, or?”

God of War and Spider-Man are breaking records for single player games and Fortnite is breaking records for online games.

It’s a win win for PS4 owners.

[Sayai jin]

What does this have to do with Spiderman. It's not even in the same genre and one is F2P.

[Cohagen420]

Except its the only game, ask Cliffy B and David Jaffe. Etc how their projects went.

[CarlDechance]

LOL. Exactly.

[gangsta_red]

Ask Gravity Rush 2, Tell Tale Games how their projects went.

"Except its the only game,"

???
PUBG, Overwatch, Rainbow Six... All these games do incredibly well and have been out for a long time.

[rainslacker]

Shh....we ignore the flops in MP, unless they're games we're pissed off about because of something, and use percentages of user bases for SP games to ignore their success.

Truth is, games flop all the time. Doesn't matter the genre, whether they're SP or MP, or if they're in a wildly successful franchise.

[Imalwaysright]

True but no SP game is even close to have the same impact as Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG or Fortnite. I wouldn't be surprised if GTA5 sold more than all the previous GTA games combined and what's the reason for it? Why such a huge boost in sales compared to previous entries that were themselves some of the biggest SP games in the industry?

MP focused games have a much bigger impact than SP games. We saw the impact that CoD had last gen and now even CoD is trying to replicate the success of other MP focused games. Numbers don't lie and I don't understand why people try to argue against them or why they get upset when others point out something that is completely obvious.

[crazyCoconuts]

Not to take away from Fortnite or GAAS, but Fortnite has to be treated as an exception not the rule. I wouldn't tell my kids to forget grades and focus on baseball based on the top earner in the league.

[Sayai jin]

Apples to oranges comparison.

[crazyCoconuts]

I'm saying just because one company is making tons of money with one game doesn't mean that's going to be the way most companies will make money in the future, and people need to drop what they're doing and try to copy Epic.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Phil is one dim dude, throw enough sh*t eventually some of it sticks. GaaS is a dim future for gamers, it can coexist - but not the only way games should be played.

Why would you want that?

[Kribwalker]

I’ve never said it’s the only way games should be played. I am saying there is room for both. I play both MP and SP games, but I like MP more. I’m more for competitive gaming vs cinematic stories, but that doesn’t mean i don’t like to play those.

If done right (fortnite for example) GAAS can be great. But it’s when it gets anti consumer and Pay to win where i have a problem

[AspiringProGenji]

None are MS games and not every Gass game has this same success, so no he wasn’t into anything, or else LawBreakers wouldn’t have to close its servers

[gangsta_red]

Why do people keep bringing up Lawbreakers but never any of the SP games that have not reached Spider-Man levels?

Every game has the potential to do extremely well, but in the case of MP/GaaS games the potential far exceeds those of SP only games.

[SuperSaiyanGod41]

This is impressive for a f2p game but still not as impressive as gtav numbers especially since it's a focused single player game first with online as a bonus. Gtav still is selling in the top 10 today and how many years it's been out? That's impressive especially since it's not f2p. Just saying.

[rainslacker]

GaaS is a rather broad term as well, and doesn't necessarily mean that a game is MP based. For instance, Farmville is a GaaS style game, and while it has some sort of online communication through FaceBook, it is still ultimately a SP game.

GaaS is just the fancy new name given to a game that possesses MT or ways to keep the player engaged over the long term, and like all things involving money, its taken over the more purer thing that could be offered through GaaS style games.

[rainslacker]

GaaS games having more "impact", doesn't mean that the impact of SP games has gone down. It's just a shift in the percentages of how much each type of game makes. Spencer was speaking on the notion that they have a better chance to make more money with MP games, compared to SP games....because SP games are hard apparently.

[Nyxus]

Except that's not what he said. He said 'they don’t have the same impact that they used to have'. And that is not true.

[Smokehouse]

Lmao! Thats nuts. That’s mobile numbers. I wonder how much of that is Mobile.

[Shadow017]

I have to be the only person that still haven't played this game. This generation I couldn't get myself back into multiplayer. Stuck on games like Horizon, Witcher, GoW, Divinity Original Sin 2, Spider-Man, and Bloodborne.

[Kiwi66]

Nope your not alone in that

[AspiringProGenji]

I have never touched this game. I played a bit of PUBG and dropped it too. You are not alone

[Sayai jin]

I get a healthy dose of MP and SP. Didn't have time when I was serving, but I'm retired now.

[Dragonscale]

I haven't either and never will.

[Elwenil]

This. I simply do not get it.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Nice - and I want one of them, it's just worn out for me. Don't think I'll ever kick it up again.

[Wotbot]

Good for them but the game just doesn’t do it for me, it’s too much of a kids game, I much prefer PUBG.

[bamillington]

impressive

[trouble_bubble]

Fortnite is free. The end. Don’t think too hard

[MAULxx]

I wasn't one of them.