Fortnite uses nostalgia to keep breaking records

Fortnite “OG” brought the game back to it’s roots, attracting much of it’s original players back to the game

November 4th saw 44.7 million players in one day, shattering records.

2017 feels like ages ago for some of us after all that’s happened in the world since, but many, especially in younger generations, will vividly remember that year because of a cultural phenomenon that took the world by storm and transformed the landscape of games/Esports: Fortnite. The free-to-play, battle royale style video game with unique building mechanics captured the attention of nearly everyone who had access to the internet, along with it ushering in a new era of the industry, turning elite Fortnite players into major celebrities (such as Tyler Blevins better known as “Ninja”), millions of dollars being put on the line in tournaments, and revolutionizing live streaming of video games. Epic Games, creators of Fortnite, take initiative for their game to consistently evolve, which means the 2023 version Fortnite has major differences to the game they burst onto the scene with in 2017. While the consistent changes kept their younger audience engaged, there was a drop off in retaining their original players. Epic Games recently saw an opportunity to capitalize on nostalgia and ran with it. This past week, they announced the new season will be “Fortnite: OG” which will bring the game back to it’s original map, guns, etc. The strategy to turn back the clock worked, as on November 4th , with the original map back in play, Fortnite broke it’s own record with a staggering 44.7 million players in one day, tallying 102 million hours of play. This included 5 million concurrent players on November 3rd. With all eyes on Fortnite yet again, some of the best in the world at the game were also back streaming their gameplay, getting more then 100k viewers on their streams, much like what we saw back in 2017 and 2018. With millions of young players playing Fortnite across the world, mild graphics, and being a uniquely skill-based game, it is also prime to be a tremendous platform for Esports. Back in May of this year, the IOC added Fortnite to it’s Olympic Esports series, and with this reinvigorated boost off of a nostalgic play by Epic Games, Fortnite could be back in the forefront of Esports yet again. Fortnite is an economic ecosystem in it’s own right, and going back to it’s roots proved to have been yet another incredible decision by Epic Games to keep Fortnite on top.