It’s been almost six years since 2018 and it had some great highs in pop culture, from Drake having his top year ever to the premiere of Avengers: Infinity War, but none have been more impactful than when Fortnite: Battle Royale blew up. Everyone from 3rd graders to professional streamers had to get involved, becoming the most popular video game in only a matter of months. Taking a look back, Fortnite has made Epic Games over $20 billion, according to Demandsage, and cemented itself as one of the greatest games alongside Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V. It would bring more and more collaborations, while hype slowly died down for some time as players didn’t like the direction it was going.
After 2018, the game had its first peak when the Winter of 2021 began, marking the third chapter in Fortnite’s story. The season came in December with a brand new island to explore and Spider-Man in the game’s Battle Pass to unlock. While it technically peaked around January of 2022, there was nothing as massive as Zero Build, introduced in March with Season 2. Zero Build brought a whole new demographic from games like Call of Duty, with players entering a combat experience without the hassle of building.
These only laid the foundations of last Friday’s release, though, as Chapter 4: Season 4 ended and the 4-week Fortnite OG event began. A time machine has brought the game back to 2018, becoming the Chapter 1: Season 5 island so many enjoyed including Tilted Towers, Dusty Divot, and more! Epic released a smaller, 50-tier pass instead of the usual 100 tiers with “remixes”, or alternate versions, of classic Battle Pass skins. Even old items came back into the game, like the classic AR, the Pump Shotgun, and the Chug Jug!
As for its success, @FortniteGame on 𝕏 (Twitter) posted that they were blown away, with November 4th being the biggest day in Fortnite’s history, with 44.7 million online and 102 million hours of play total. In my opinion, this is not surprising at all, since this brought back original players, introduced newer players to the “good ol’ days,” and all with the new Zero Build option to leave no gamers behind.
The event is independent of any chapters and will end December 2nd this year so hop on while you still can! The item shop’s rotating daily, so you might miss out on any skins you would’ve wanted if you didn’t hop on. Also, both the map and loot pool are changing weekly, with it based on Season 6 by the time the article goes live, seasons 7 and 8 next week, and ending with a map and loot pool based on seasons 9 and X.
So, what are you waiting for? Hop on the mic, get on with the boys, and join the several million trying to get Victory Royale at this very moment! Some may prefer to play solo but Fortnite is a great experience with friends and there is no better time than now to play the game and relive the glory days!
