Fortnite has been taking the world by storm.  It is possibly the most talked about video game in history and one of the most controversial games as well.

Humble Beginnings

The Fortnite beta officially came out on July 25, 2017.  It was produced by “Epic Games” and was originally available for only PC and the Playstation 4.  Now it is available for Xbox, Nintendo Switch, IOS and Android as well.  

There was originally one mode that cost $60, Save the World, until a PvP Battle Royale mode came out for free in late September 2017.  

Save the World hadn’t been very much of a success.  Epic Games had designed it as a PvE (Player vs Environment) and had added a Battle Royale to test it out.  As we all know, it was a big success.

The Take Off

When a free game came out with the ability to collaborate with friends, it was destined for greatness.  When it had first come out, only 1 million people started playing by August of 2017. Fortnite wasn’t supposed to be a big game originally.  It was just a game produced by Epic Games for testing purposes.  

When the Battle Royale addition was produced,  it skyrocketed. The Battle Royale mode allowed users to play in three modes; squads, duos and solos.  It is a PvP (Player vs Player) and 100 people load in together with one winner. Out of nowhere an additional 35 million people started playing the game in November 2017.  This wasn’t even the climax of their success, though.

The Take Over

Fortnite really reached its highest point in the summer of 2018.  By then it had over 125 million people playing it.  At one point if you weren’t good at Fortnite, kids wouldn’t even acknowledge you.  There was also clout that came with being good at Fortnite.

People were getting paid millions of dollars to play Fortnite.  The most popular person being Ninja, who’s net worth is now $6 million.  He was at one point making $500,000 a month.  

To this date Epic Games has made over $1 billion off of Fortnite alone, even though it’s a free game (insert jaw drop).

Almost too Popular   

At the beginning of the summer in 2018, Fortnite had reached almost every person’s feed who has social media.  It is inevitable that you know what Fortnite is even if you’ve never played it. There were kids who play Fortnite longer than the time they spend in school.  It got to a point where teachers talked about it. The priest at St. Rita’s Parish even mentioned it in a Homily.  Kids started focusing more on Fortnite than school.  There were thousands of kids who were tanking and didn’t care as long as they were the best at Fortnite.  

“I would play Fortnite for up to three hours a day when it was at its highest point,” said McQuaid Freshman Brendan Lynch.

Then the skins or characters became the hottest thing on the block.  The more skins you had…the cooler you were. Kids were spending up to $300 on virtual skins.  There are YouTubers who have spent $5,000 on the game just for content.  There is a skin that is literally $1,000 and everyone is trying to get it.  It got to a point where it was getting ridiculous.  It was seemed like Fortnite was going to take over everyone’s lives.  Then it just started becoming less and less popular within about 1 week.

“I lost interest in Fortnite for awhile at the end of the summer,” said Aquinas Freshman Kyle Maier.  “I would only play like 20 minutes a week.”

It was on the verge of going out of style until something monumental happened.

Fortnite Revived

When Sony announced they were allowing crossplay in late September of 2018 between Xbox and Ps4 it changed the gaming world forever.  For all non-grammarists and gamers crossplay means that it is possible to play with friends with different consoles (gaming devices).  This changed the gaming community forever, and as a result Fortnite had survived.  

Now kids could play with even more people online.  It provided even more options to the already extremely interactive game.  This caused Fortnite to stay in style and to this date it is still the most talked about game.

The Parenting Side

Many parents have been on the non-Fortnite side of things because it takes up so much time, kids treat it as if it is more important than school, and because Fortnite seen as too violent.  

    “Fortnite is changing the world and it isn’t necessarily in a good way,” said Greg Creswell, a child protective worker.  “We are exposing our children to violent video games.”

There are also parents’ stories on the internet of supporting their kids playing Fortnite.  When their kids aren’t as good as they wanted to be at the game, the parent would spend as much money as it took to help them win.  Some parents are acting as if playing Fortnite is a sport and even hire tutors for their children just so that they can be the best.

One story really jumped out though.  It was a story of a dad paying for his son’s Fortnite lessons and paying over $1000 for them.  When the boy’s friends heard about it, they thought it was perfectly normal and wanted their dads to do the same.   

The Victory Royale

Although Fortnite is just a videogame it has creeped it’s way into legitimately everything.  In the NFL, players when they score a touchdown are doing Fortnite dances. Famous rappers are playing Fortnite as well, some even go so far as to putting Fortnite terminology in their songs.  There have been Fortnite tournaments televised on ESPN and other networks in recent months as well.

Gaming groups are still being formed because of Fortnite and have become multi-million dollar companies (ie. Faze Clan and TSM).  Also individuals have become celebrities as a result of being good at the game. Individuals like Ninja, as mentioned earlier.  TFUE, a member of Faze Clan and has 44.4 million views total.  As well as Daquan, a member of TSM who has over 4 million subscribers on Youtube.  

The game has changed lives forever and these three people have reached over 30 million people just by themselves.  Fortnite has given the whole world something to marvel at but has also been a burden and cause of frustration to many.  Fortnite has truly been both a blessing and a curse.