Over the weekend, millions of gamers celebrated Fortnite’s 5th Birthday Celebration, enjoying all manner of birthday-exclusive challenges, rewards, and cake. While we’re taking a moment to recognize the anniversary of this monumental game, it’s worth looking at just what has allowed it to maintain its success for so long. The answer lies within Fortnite’s ability to evolve with the times and continually make headlines.
A large part of Fortnite’s necessary evolution has been helped along by learning from its competitors. When Apex Legends launched in 2019, it did so with an innovative ping system and the ability to revive eliminated teammates in the middle of a match, which hadn't been seen before in any other major Battle Royales. It didn’t take long for Fortnite to institute its own ping system and add reboot (revive) vans to the game. Fortnite also lifted the idea of vaults - large unlockable rooms full of high-grade loot - from Apex Legends.
2020 saw the release of Call of Duty: Warzone, another big competitor in the Battle Royale space. Warzone brought with it the idea of currency and bounties, leading to Fortnite’s own gold bar system and bounty boards. Both Apex legends and Warzone utilized sprinting and sliding to make their games feel faster and more exciting. Fortnite eventually added its own version of the tactical sprint, along with sliding and vaulting, into their game.
Even as Fortnite continued borrowing from other games, it also kept making headlines all on its own. One can hardly forget the Fortnite World Cup which had an incredible $100m prize pool. This was also the moment where Bugha, the winner of the Solos prize, was awarded three million dollars and became a household name overnight. He even appeared on The Tonight Show the next evening.
Epic has gone to great lengths to generate news with Fortnite's in-game stunts as well. Starting in Season 4, which took place between May and July 2018, Fortnite pursued the idea of a continual story for the game and live events to support that story, starting with an in-game rocket launch. This would eventually culminate in a massive event at the end of Season X in October 13th 2019. In addition to progressing the story, the event led to the infamous black hole where the game was shut down for 37 hours. It was a bold strategy by Epic Games as they purposely kept fans waiting for the next big update. The event made national headlines and received coverage so thorough that even my grandparents heard about it on the nightly news.
When Fortnite returned on October 15th, it did so with Chapter 2! The new chapter came with upgraded visuals, brought in a new map, implemented new mechanics such as fishing and swimming, and a bunch of other little upgrades to the Battle Royale. It wouldn’t be long before the new map was flooded, drivable vehicles added, and of course radio stations that brought a bit of Grand Theft Auto flair to the island. All of these changes kept Fortnite's Battle Royale feeling fresh and innovative throughout Chapter 2.
Fortnite has also become a pop culture phenomenon, latching onto what's hot and finding ways to collaborate with it. One of their first big collaborations was with Marshmallow in February 2019, who performed a concert for over ten million people in-game. This would pave the way for Travis Scott’s Astronomical event in April 2020, which pulled in 45.8 million players (including repeat viewers) in just three days. Instead of just being a concert, it was a full-on event with an enormous Travis Scott performing on the island. Fortnite then pursued a collaboration concert with Ariana Grande, which took place in August 2021, and has been rumored to be in talks with Lady Gaga for another bombastic performance.
Collaborations don’t stop at events and skins, as Chapter 2 Season 4 saw an entire Marvel-themed battle pass in August 2020. This was accompanied by Marvel locations, bosses, and mythic items. Fortnite has even brought on celebrities to play main characters within its own story, such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing The Foundation and Brie Larson playing The Paradigm. The game's momentum shows no signs of abating, with their recent Dragonball Z collaboration in August 2022 leading to their most 'Liked' tweet of all time.
Beyond learning from their rivals and the endless collaborations, Fortnite is constantly reaching its tendrils out to see what new audiences it can capture. The recent Zero Build version of Fortnite's Battle Royale premiered alongside the addition of sprinting, sliding, and vaulting, bringing the game back towards a more traditional combat-oriented experience. Zero Build eschews the entire building mechanic and puts an emphasis on shooting, using the environment around you for cover, and spatial awareness. If you get behind some terrain as the storm approaches, you can't just build your way out of trouble. You also can't build defenses, making fights quicker and deadlier as your best option is to run and gun. The ability to sprint, slide, and vault also added some excellent mobility to the game and imbued both Zero Build and their classic Battle Royale with a new sense of vigor.
In some ways, it’s hard to believe Fortnite has only been around for five years. Products with the Fortnite branding flood our local stores, streamers and Youtubers have made entire careers around it, and it's become a gratingly ubiquitous meme spread by players throughout Elden Ring. It has name recognition well beyond the people who play the game, and with its impressive adaptability, one can only wonder what we’ll be writing about when Fortnite’s 10th anniversary rolls around. Of course, as Fortnite itself has shown, a whole lot can change in five years.