Trying to explain the success of Fortnite

It was revealed this past week that the new mobile version of Fortnite is reeling in $2 million a day, usurping the insanely lucrative Candy Crush and Pokemon Go. If you’ve been living under a rock the last two months and do not know what Fortnite is, I will do my best to explain it here.

Fortnite is the most recent success story in the video game genre known as battle royale games. Defined as a blending of “the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game with last man standing gameplay,” battle royale games essentially all have the same formula: A large number of players are dropped into a defined area with little to no supplies or weapons. It is every man for himself, with players searching for supplies and engaging in skirmishes with each other as the map shrinks, bringing everyone closer to the dangerous core. The game goes on until there is one sole survivor, who is then deemed the winner.

To give a sense of just how popular Fortnite and the battle royale genre is right now, Fortnite recently broke the record for most people playing at one time — 3.4 million. Who previously held that record? A game called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, another battle royale title.

What makes these games so wildly popular is their simplicity and various factors dangerously feeding into their addictiveness. Loading and waiting times for Fortnite are very short, making the time between a finished game and a brand new one almost nonexistent. The result of this immediacy in matchmaking is the age-old video game trap of “one more game,” except even worse. Now, you can start a new game without even having to wait and potentially think, “Hey, I wonder if this is the wisest thing to be doing right now.”

Over the last couple decades, gaming has steadily become more and more social, with multiplayer gaming becoming the centerpiece and primary money-maker for the industry. It makes complete sense, too. Playing games alongside friends, no matter where they are located geographically, enhances the experience for all.

For a while, it appeared that “bigger is better” when it comes to multiplayer, but that has turned out not to be the case. Fornite’s 100-player servers are impressive and truly make it feel like you are on your own in a massive world, populated by real players. However, it is not the game’s size that sets it apart and keeps players scratching and clawing for more. Instead, Fornite shines on the individual level with its quality squad gameplay and ease of playing with friends.

Fortnite is a gigantic and daunting experience, but it is entirely squad-based. The fact that you are grouped up into small teams with your friends retains the closeness and personal chemistry elements that make games interesting. Like real life, wandering through the world alone can quickly become boring, however, doing it alongside your friends enhances the experience.

In 2010, an online shooter game called MAG was released. The main selling point of the game was its online battles of up to 256 players, a server size that was completely unheard of at the time. While the idea was novel, the game completely flopped. Two-hundred and fifty-six players is simply too many people, and without the facilities in place for engaging gameplay with your friends, it quickly becomes dull.

What Fortnite and other battle royale games do so well is preserve the personal experience of each player, never losing sight of why many people play video games in the first place. Most casual gamers just want to play with their friends at the end of a long day, so the easier a game makes this possible, and the more central it makes team gameplay, the wider the appeal will be. To succeed in a battle royale game, excellent communication and coordination with your friends is key.

The same thing that is critical for success is also what makes these games so much fun: teamwork. What Fortnite and the battle royale genre do so well is facilitate and encourage the very element of gaming that keeps players coming back. The future of online gaming is not impressive size but instead preserving the personal experience of playing with friends.

Andrew Hall is a UF management senior. His column focuses on entertainment.