Fortnite Invades Screens Of All Sizes

JUST LIKE THERE’S OFTEN A SONG OF THE summer, there’s usually a video game of the summer too.

- Alex Fitzpatrick

This year that game is undeniably Fortnite Battle Royale, an online free-for-all that every teen in America suddenly seems to be playing. It’s not just kids, though—everyone from rapper Drake to Los Angeles Laker Josh Hart is a fan. That groundswell of support has propelled Fortnite from a simple video game into a cultural sensation, with hundreds of millions of fans worldwide who play the game, wear the gear and even learn the characters’ victory dances.

“Fortnite is another in a long line of games like World of Warcraft or Guitar Hero or Minecraft that is changing everything underfoot,” says Mat Piscatella, a video-game industry analyst with research firm NPD Group.

Fortnite’s big draw is a madcap multiplayer mode that drops up to 100 players on an island in a last-person-standing showdown. Players scavenge for weapons, health packs and other supplies as they hope to get the drop on other combatants before they’re taken down themselves—think The Hunger Games, only with AK-47s and sniper rifles. (Fortnite did not invent this so-called battle royale gameplay, but it has certainly popularized it.) One major twist: during each 20-minute-or-so round, a deadly storm envelops the island, gradually forcing gamers into ever tighter quarters. Meanwhile, players can build ramps, walls and other structures in the middle of a firefight; in the genre of shooter games, which can quickly grow stagnant, this is a refreshing curveball. Add a generally welcoming player community, simple arcade style gameplay and charmingly cartoonish graphics, and it’s easy to see why Fortnite is a hit.