The staying power of Fortnite has been impressive to behold, and the service-title-to-rule-them-all is still defying expectations. First launching in 2018, the dominant shooter pulled in more than 44.7 million players in a single day with a triumphant return to Battle Royale's earliest incarnation.
Via Twitter, Epic Games thanked players for the massive turnout, stating that "yesterday was the biggest day in Fortnite's history with over 44.7 million players jumping in and 102 million hours of play".
Formally known as Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 5, "OG" sees a return to the original map and arsenal the game shipped with. It's only available for a limited time and available on virtually every platform, which is likely a big part of the reason for the massive surge in player count. Fortnite OG will run through until 2nd December, so if you want to nostalgically hot drop Snobby Shores one last time, you'd best get a wriggle on.
Were you amongst the multitudes flooding back to Fortnite over the weekend? Was the OG experience everything you were hoping for? Board the Battle Bus for old times' sake via the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 23
No wonder Sony is trying to dip there toes into GAAS... these numbers are insane
I gotta thank those Fortnite players for sponsoring my free Epic Games Store games every week - thank you!
Next week freebie is Golden Light which looks pretty weird and interesting.
That explains why there's been queues every time I've logged on. Fortnite doesn't get enough credit from the core gaming community for the way it keeps players engaged with quests, events and content.
COD is surely taking notes right..?
Oh dang i havent even landed snobby yet this week, goals…
Man, this ridiculous amount of success definitely won't lead to other companies trying to do cash grab last gambit nostalgia bait tactics to try and pump up increased short term growth and not end up leading to more live-service slop games and tactics for many more years to come and causing over expansion when down turns hit to have people lose their jobs, right? Right?
How do they still need to fire people with these numbers is beyond me.
16% layoffs. Epic can go f**k themselves.
@AdamNovice The Big Mac sells in its billions too, but that doesn't make it a good burger.
@nessisonett
Every big company periodically lays people off when they get too bloated, or the scope of the business changes.
It's obviously always sad when good employees lose their jobs, but it's just the way it is.
Feeling slightly guilty that this is tempting me to jump back in. (For the first time since early April 2018!)
That is impressive numbers. As someone who only started playing midway through Chapter 3 this map is awful and dull. If this was the first thing I played of Fortnite I would not be playing today. Glad its only a month also happy a lot of players get to have some nostalgia.
@mrtennis1990 Indeed and it's not just Fortnite. COD: Warzone, Genshin Impact and Apex Legends all have around 60 million monthly players. Genshin's parent company HoYoverse made more profit than PlayStation in FY2022. The rewards are astronomical if you succeed. Which could fund other projects like AAA single player games, studio acquisitions and more.
But the other reality is the amount of staff it takes to keep these games afloat. Bungie has/had 1200 staff, MiHoYo over 1,000, COD/Activision hard to tell as it's so many studios, but it's thousands. And many of these games fail. It's a lottery they are gambling on.
@nessisonett Thing is...
Companies like Epic, Microsoft, Sony are successful and profitable in part because they know when and where to "cut the fat."
It is cynical, but it's also making sense.
@Godot25 The sad truth is if some people were in charge of these companies they would drive them into the ground by being 'nice' and keeping everyone employed when the business just can't sustain it. Long term that is worse for all. It's tough to make these hard decisions, nobody enjoys it.
@NinjaNicky there are tons of free games. Most aren’t this popular.
@nessisonett @Godot25 @themightyant Nintendo in the Wii U era showed you can solve the problem by having the CEO take a pay cut instead. The strategy paid off too given the Switch's gigantic success.
@Grumblevolcano That was a lovely symbolic move by Satoru Iwata, and one I praise, I wish more would do the same. But if you think the CEO taking a paycut is going to cover pay for all of those jobs you are very much mistaken... especially at Nintendo.
(edit) But it was a different situation, based purely on their current failings with the Wii U, Nintendo had a lot of room to bounce back. That isn't the same as the current situation where it is market conditions that is causing so many jobs to be on the line. These are not easy choices, or ones that people jump to unless they feel it is necessary.
Fact is cost of EVERYTHING to do with production is going up, investment is going down. The books don't balance. As a CEO you can't just look at last years financials to make plans you are thinking 5+ years ahead and trying to make the best decisions for the company, and it's staff, long term.
@Grumblevolcano Taking paycut is more about being compassionate, but it's hardly revelant to the economics of running a business.
If you take Bungie for example. Considering median yearly salary of one developer in Seattle (where Bungie is located) is 134k dollars per year. Not counting expenses that you as a employer have on your employee (health coverage etc.) No cutting of execs pay will match that, because it's not like there is 1000 Bungie execs that can cut their salary. There are just a few of them. Same thing for Epic.
Nintendo survived WiiU era because they had huge amount of money in reserves from Wii success (they also had 3DS). Not because Iwata cut his salary. As I said. It was more about "gesture" and not about real economic policy.
@NinjaNicky no challenging moments? People will get filtered just off the building mechanics. That’s way more complicated than a simple TPS. If you’re trying to actually win it’s not that easy honestly. You need to have the reflexes and a creative mind to win.
Anyone can play a game like cod and get at least a couple kills. Fortnite it’s easy to go 0-1.
Count me as one of those! I haven’t played since it was available on iOS hahaha The original map and gameplay is seriously so fun. Definitely have been playing a few matches a day since the drop.
Haven’t played in over 6 months til Saturday.. my first game in had 16 kills and died in 2nd place cuz I blew myself up lol not a builder pro, just a spammer and a grenadier.. it’s so nice having my original weapons loadout.. AR, Heavy Shotgun, Plunger Gun, Bolt Sniper, and Rocket Launcher.. I know it won’t last but I have thus far enjoyed the nostalgia
@bindiana “As someone who only started playing midway through Chapter 3 this map is awful and dull.”
All of what you said. The world is empty, the cars don’t work, no NPC. This is what I actually always thought Fortnite was, an empty place with 100 people, mostly bots but whatever, shooting each other like the start of the Hunger Games. So I never played it b/c what’s the point? Then a couple of years ago a couple of people I know on social media started tweeting about it so I gave it a go, and it was fun. But fun for me is NPCs and rollercoasters and exploring, not just standing around shooting and getting shot. Glad it’s only a month, and I think they plan to keep adding new stuff each week, but I don’t understand how anyone thinks this is better than most of the seasons the past couple of years.🤷🏻♂️
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