Fortnite is being held partly responsible for the break down of a rising number of marriages. A press release from UK-based website divorce-online.co.uk suggests that around 5% of all UK divorces so far this year have, to some extent, come as a result of addiction to online games, including Fortnite Battle Royale.
The press release states that since the company behind the website has been investigating the number of divorce petitions referencing Fortnite since seeing a rising trend throughout the year. Divorce Online states that it has “received 200 divorce petitions since January 1 [2018] where addiction to Fortnite and other online gaming has been cited as one of the reasons for divorce. This equates to roughly 5% of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year.”
Divorce Online claims to handle 5% of all divorces filed in England and Wales. If we’re to assume that their findings can be extrapolated across the rest of the UK, online gaming addiction could be responsible for as many as 4,000 divorces a year.
It’s worth pointing out that Fortnite isn’t the only issue – it’s the only named game, but Divorce Online mentions “addiction to Fortnite and other online gaming.” That said, there does seem to be a growing issue around gaming’s impact on the institution of marriage.
The Fortnite week 9 challenges are out now, so you can get to work on them if you still need to earn those Battle Stars. That said, that might not be such a great idea – maybe go spend some quality time with your significant other, instead.