Fortnite: Battle Royale’s cultural hold isn’t loosening up. Epic Games has amassed 200 million registered players for the popular battle royale game, according to Bloomberg.
It’s a 60 percent jump in registered users since June, when developer Epic Games announced it had reached the 125 million mark for Fortnite. In January, Epic said the game had 40 million players—a number that sounds paltry compared to the new figure. Registered users, however, don’t equate to active users; Epic said in early November it had reached 8.3 million concurrent players around the world.
Related: Fortnite Winter Royale is the next phase of Fortnite’s competitive season
Fortnite’s success can be attributed to a number of different factors. Despite being an early access game, the 100-player battle royale title is a cultural phenomenon worldwide, and it just keeps expanding. A boost in numbers—both registered and concurrent players—is likely thanks to the game’s recent release in South Korea and continued expansion to new platforms. The game is available everywhere players are: in PC bangs in Korea, on smartphones, on console, on PC. And better yet, it’s free to play on all devices.
Epic is injecting a lot of money into the game, both on the casual and competitive fronts. Fortnite’s competitive scene has a $100 million prize pool for the 2018 to 2019 season, spread across a series of different skirmish-style events. Fortnite’s Winter Royale is ongoing, offering up a $1 million prize to the top players. Qualifiers have just finished, and finals tournaments for the European and North American regions will begin soon.
