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Fortnite’s free Battle Royale draws 1 million players at launch

fortnite battle royale 1 million players

Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode might not be the most original thing in the world, but its free launch has proven quite successful. On launch day, Epic report that the game has already attracted over 1 million players.

Check out our introduction to Fortnite proper.

Now, their specific phrasing is that “over 1 million players have partied on the Battle Bus,” so your guess is as good as ours when it comes to deciphering whether that means total users, concurrent users, or just that they managed to get 10,000 matches going. Whatever the case, it’s a pretty impressive start for the new mode.

Fortnite’s Battle Royale is perhaps the most direct competitor to spring up since the success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and developer Bluhole have been nonplussed about the whole situation given their existing relationship with Epic. With Fortnite’s Battle Royale being free and PUBG as a paid product, there’s plenty of room for Epic’s game to steal some of the market, and it looks like they’ve already had success in doing so.

Fortnite proper is still in paid Early Access, but has been pretty successful on its own merits. The whole package will eventually be free, but the Battle Royale mode has given us a gratis option early. Sounds like duos will be coming soon.