‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ claims 10 million players
Just two weeks after it launched.
We were initially skeptical of Epic's attempt to repurpose its zombie tower defense-shooter Fortnite into a battle royale mode -- after all, the genre's champion PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds sold ten million copies only six months after it launched. We shouldn't have doubted it. Fortnite: Battle Royale just surpassed the ten-million-player milestone last weekend just two weeks after it launched.
In two weeks since we've launched, over 10 million of you have played Battle Royale. We can't say thank you enough. https://t.co/v39jBGe9qd pic.twitter.com/pkC7fhdl4K
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) October 11, 2017
Those aren't exactly comparable metrics, since Fortnite: Battle Royale is free-to-play and PUBG retails for $30, meaning the latter has already amassed a ton of money while the latter spins up its microtransaction revenue streams. For an apples-to-apples comparison, though, Epic estimated that 3.7 million people played Fortnite: Battle Royale on Sunday, while PUBG has nearly 2 million daily players according to Steam Charts.
The new kid on the nascent 'battle royale genre' block is seriously challenging the reigning champ -- but PUBG might not take the usurpation lying down. Its studio Bluehole loudly complained about the overt similarities between its game (released last March) and Epic's new spin-off, and even vaguely threatened the latter in a statement when it said the company would "contemplate further action."
