Save the World andBattle Royale were released in 2017 asearly access titles, whileCreative was released on December 6, 2018. While theSave the World andCreative versions have been successful for Epic Games,Fortnite Battle Royale in particular became an overwhelming success and acultural phenomenon, drawing more than 125 million players in less than a year, earning hundreds of millions of dollars per month.Fortnite as a whole generated$9 billion in gross revenue up until December 2019, and it has been listed among thegreatest games of all time.
Save the World is available formacOS,[c]PlayStation 4,Windows, andXbox One, whileBattle Royale andCreative were released for all those platforms as well asAndroid andiOS devices[c] andNintendo Switch. The game also launched with the release of the ninth-generationPlayStation 5 andXbox Series X/S consoles. Furthermore,Lego Fortnite,Rocket Racing,Fortnite Festival, andFortnite Ballistic are available on all platforms.
Game modes
Fortnite has multiple game modes, using the same engine; each has similar graphics and art assets. Five of these modes are directly created and managed by Epic Games and its subsidiaries:
Fortnite: Save the World is a player-versus-environmentcooperative game, with four players collaborating towards a common objective on various missions while avoiding the effects of an encroaching cataclysmic storm. The players take the role of commanders of home base shelters, collecting resources, saving survivors, and defending equipment that helps to either collect data on the storm or to push back the storm. From missions, players are awarded a number of in-game items, which include hero characters, weapon and trap schematics, and survivors, all of which can be leveled up through gained experience to improve their attributes.
Fortnite Battle Royale is a player-versus-player game for up to 100 players, allowing one to play alone, in a duo, or in a squad (usually consisting of three or four players). Weaponless playersairdrop from a "Battle Bus" that crosses the game's map, and then scavenge for weapons, items, and resources while trying to stay alive and to attack and eliminate other players. Over the course of a round, the safe area of the map shrinks down in size due to an incoming toxic storm; players outside that threshold take damage and can be eliminated if they fail to quickly evacuate. This forces remaining players into tighter spaces and encourages player encounters until the last player or team is alive. Alongside the mainBattle Royale mode, three additional modes are also available:Zero Build, which removes building elements,Reload, which allows players to respawn after dying for a set amount of time, andOG, which re-introduces the classic Chapter 1 map and weapons. Furthermore, "Party Royale" served as a social space, which hosted various concert events.
Lego Fortnite is a platform for Lego-based games. The platform includesOdyssey, asurvival sandbox game, where players play as LegoMinifig versions of characters, as they collect materials, build various buildings, craft various weapons and tools and fight against monsters; andBrick Life, a social-based game designed as an age-appropriateGrand Theft Auto game.[4]
Rocket Racing is aracing game, developed byPsyonix and serving as a spin-off title toRocket League. Players race vehicles, gaining speed boosts from special lanes sections or bydrifting, as well as the ability to jump and racing on vertical and inverted surfaces, while avoiding obstacles on the course.
Fortnite Festival is arhythm game developed byHarmonix, consisting of three modes. In the "Main Stage", players play popular hit songs and original tracks created by Harmonix and the Epic Games Sound Team, hitting notes to the rhythm in the Main Stage on one of the four unique parts: Lead, Guitar/Bass, Drums and Vocals, in a manner similar to Harmonix'sRock Band games, while the "Battle Stage" pits sixteen players to get the highest score and survive each round until one player remains.[5] In the "Jam Stage", players cooperate to make remixes, similar to Harmonix'Dropmix andFuser, using any part of any song withinFestival mode, in which are also usable inBattle Royale,Creative and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
Fortnite Ballistic is a five-on-five, round-based tactical shooter, comparable toCounter-Strike andValorant, to launch inearly access on December 11, 2024. One team must plant and protect a rift device while it is charging from the opposing team that seeks to eliminate them and disarm the device. Between rounds, players are able to buy in-game weapons and gear from currency earned in previous rounds.Ballistic is the first Epic-developed game on theFortnite platform to directly support afirst-person view.[6]
In addition to these modes,Fortnite offers thesandbox mode,Fortnite Creative. Within this mode, players are given complete freedom to spawn any item from the Battle Royale gamemode on a personal island, and can create games such as battle arenas, race courses,platforming challenges, and more. Furthermore, it also supportsUnreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which allows players to edit worlds usingFortnite assets.Creative and UEFN also allows players to create customFall Guys games which can be accessible within theFortnite launcher.
All modes exceptSave the World arefree-to-play;Save the World ispay-to-play.[7]The games aremonetized through the use of V-Bucks, in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world funds, but also earned through completing missions and other achievements inSave the World.[8] In other modes, V-Bucks can be used to buy cosmetic items such as character models or the game'sbattle pass, a tiered progression of customization rewards for gaining experience and completing certain objectives during the course of aBattle Royale season.[9][10] The battle pass originally was aimed to supportFortnite Battle Royale, and with the expansion of game modes in 2023, two addition passes were added, the Festival Pass forFortnite Festival and Lego Pass forLego Fortnite, each which required progression in those modes to receive rewards. In November and December 2024, Epic changed these mechanics, allowing both of those passes to be progressed through experience points earned in anyFortnite game mode, as well as renaming the Festival Pass to Music Pass. Similarly, the Fortnite Crew, a monthly subscription that paid for the cost of the main battle pass and additional cosmetics, was expanded during the same time to encompass the Music and Lego passes.
All modes ofFortnite arecross-platform play compatible, requiring users to use an Epic Games account for cross-saving between platforms.[11]
Fortnite began from an internalgame jam at Epic Games following the publishing ofGears of War 3 around 2011. Though it was not initially one of the developed titles during the jam, the concept of merging the construction game genre, representing games likeMinecraft andTerraria, and shooter games arose, leading to the foundation ofFortnite.[12][13] Development ofFortnite slowed due to several issues, including switching from theUnreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4, a deeperrole-playing game approach to extend the life of the game, and a switch of art style from a dark theme to a more cartoonish style. Further, Epic was looking to get into thegames as a service model, and brought in Chinese publisherTencent to help; Tencent took a large stake in Epic as part of this, leading to the departure of several executives, includingCliff Bleszinski, who had been a key part ofFortnite's development.Fortnite's approach was changed to be Epic's testbed for games as a service, and further slowed the development.[14][13][15]
Epic was able to prepare to releaseFortnite as a paid early access title in July 2017, with plans to release it as free-to-play sometime in 2019 while gaining feedback from players to improve the game.[16][17][18][19] With the release ofFortnite Battle Royale, the player-versus-environment mode was distinguished as "Save the World". Ultimately, Epic opted to releaseSave the World as a premium title, bringing it out of early access on June 29, 2020.[20]
Near the same time that Epic releasedFortnite into early access,PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds had become a worldwide phenomenon, having sold over 5 million copies three months from its March 2017 release, and drawing strong interest in the battle royale genre. Epic recognized that with theFortnite base game, they could also do a battle royale mode, and rapidly developed their own version atopFortnite in about two months.[21] By September 2017, Epic was ready to release this as a second mode from "Save the World" in the paid-for earlier access, but then later decided to release it as a free game,Fortnite Battle Royale, supported with microtransactions. This version quickly gained players, with over 10 million players during its first two weeks of release, and leading Epic to create separate teams to continue theFortnite Battle Royale development apart from theSave the World version, outside of common engine elements and art assets.[22][23] This allowedFortnite Battle Royale to expand to other platforms otherwise not supported bySave the World, including iOS and Android mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch.[24][25]
A creativesandbox mode launched on December 6, 2018, synchronized with the start of season 7 ofFortnite Battle Royale. Each player has access to a private, persistent island on which they construct buildings and add and manipulate objects as desired. Players are able to invite friends to this island and participate in unofficial games such as race tracks or jumping courses.[26] Only players who purchased the battle pass initially received their own island, but a week later, on December 13, players who did not purchase it received access to the game mode for free.[27]
Fortnite Experiences (2023–present)
In March 2023, Epic released the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), a standalone editor for Windows. UEFN allows creators to use the Unreal Editor with features of Unreal Engine 5 andFortnite assets in developing new modes within theFortnite Creative mode; this mode was called "Creative 2.0".[28]
In October 2023, Epic redesigned the mainFortnite client to present Epic's own various modes as well as the numerous creative modes as part ofFortnite Experiences, comparable toRoblox in presentation.[29] This was followed by the introduction of three new Epic-developed modes for the game in December 2023:Lego Fortnite, asurvival game developed in conjunction withThe Lego Group,Rocket Racing, an arcade-style driving game developed byPsyonix, andFortnite Festival, arhythm game developed byHarmonix. Each mode was introduced as free-to-play, interfacing with the game's battle pass system, and offering new rewards associated with those modes.[30]
Numerous improvements in UEFN were announced in March 2024, including the addition of Unreal Engine's MetaHuman character rendering technology, and more assets from Lego,Rocket Racing, andFall Guys. Epic also stated their intent to have futureFortnite Battle Royale seasons starting in late 2025 to be developed in UEFN.[31]
TheSave the World mode achieved over one million players by August 2017, just prior to the release ofBattle Royale.[32]
Fortnite Battle Royale became a significant financial success for Epic Games, leading them to separate the teams betweenSave the World andBattle Royale to provide better support for both modes. Within two weeks of release, over 10 million players had played the mode,[33] and by June 2018, just after the Nintendo Switch release, had reached 125 million players.[34] Revenue fromFortnite Battle Royale during the first half of 2018 had been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars per month,[35][36] with total 2018 revenue estimated at$2.4 billion by analysis firm SuperData Research.[37] Total revenue forFortnite reached more than$9 billion by the end of 2019.[38]
Fortnite Battle Royale has also become acultural phenomenon,[39] with several celebrities reporting they play the game, and athletes usingFortniteemotes as victory celebrations.[40] A notablestreaming event in March 2018, with streamerNinja playingFortnite Battle Royale alongsideDrake,Travis Scott,Kim DotCom, andPittsburgh Steelers wide receiverJuJu Smith-Schuster, broke viewership records forTwitch to date, and led to Epic arranging aFortnite Battle Royalepro–am with 50 pairs of streamers and professional players matched with celebrities atE3 2018 in June 2018.[41][42][43] Epic Games has developed organizedesports competitions aroundFortnite Battle Royale, such as the inauguralUS$30 millionFortnite World Cup tournament that took place in July 2019[44][45] and the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS), the latter of which would be organized by Epic Games in 2020 and 2021 before being organized by Blast ApS from 2022 onwards.
There has also been growing concern overFortnite Battle Royale's draw toward young children, emphasized with the release of the mobile client. Parents and teachers had expressed concern that students are being distracted and drawn away from school work due to playingFortnite.[46] Concerns have also been raised about the impact that playing a game involving repeated depictions of gun violence may have on young children.[47][48]
Awards
In 2017, the game was nominated for "Best Co-op Game" byPC Gamer,[49] and for "Best Spectator Game" byIGN.[50] In 2018, the game won the award for Best Ongoing Game byPC Gamer[51] and IGN,[52] the latter of which nominated it for "Best Nintendo Switch Game", "Best Mobile Game", and "Best Action Game".[53][54][55]
^Iron Galaxy co-developed the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions inFortnite: Save the World.Psyonix developedRocket Racing.Harmonix developedFortnite Festival.
^Gearbox Software published retail copies ofFortnite: Save the World for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 when the game was first released in July 2017. After the introduction ofBattle Royale,Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment published retail copies for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.[1]
^abcdeThe iOS and Android clients ofFortnite Battle Royale were removed by Apple and Google respectively on August 13, 2020 as Epic had changed how one could buy V-bucks with the client, leading Epic to file a lawsuit against Apple. The iOS version returned for European users via the Epic Game Store following its launch in Europe on August 16, 2024. The macOS client of bothBattle Royale andSave the World, while downloadable, will not be able to be updated as well due to app signing restrictions. SeeEpic Games v. Apple. The game remained playable if one had already downloaded it. On Android, while it is no longer available on Google Play, it remains available via theSamsung Galaxy Store on Samsung Galaxy devices as well as directly from the Epic Games App on all other Android devices. Since May 5, 2022, the game can also be played viaXbox Cloud Gaming andGeForce Now on Android, macOS, iOS and iPadOS devices.[2][3]
