Is Fortnite Losing Its Edge? The Surprising Stats Behind Its Staying in Power in 2024

Fortnite Battle Royale has revolutionized the gaming landscape since its debut in 2017. Epic Games’ free-to-play (F2P) became an instant hit among hardcore and casual gamers alike, achieving an outstanding success that made major developers enter in panic mode. As a result, a huge amount of Fortnite-like games invaded the market (Apex Legends, PUBG, Valorant, Call of Duty: Warzone, etc.), seeking without avail to achieve the same glory. 7 years have passed since Fortnite’s debut and the zany 100 person shooter may not be as popular as it was, but remains a staple in the gaming industry. 

Throughout the years, Epic Game’s popular Battle Royale has developed and maintained a passionate fanbase, with loyal players regularly playing since its first chapter. In today’s article we’ll delve into Fortnite’s 2024 stats and data and analyze how, through its 5 chapters and hundreds of collaborations and crossovers, this free-to-play epic is still one of the most successful games in the gaming world. 

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How Many People Play Fortnite?

Since its release in 2017, the smash hit Battle Royale has retained a massive and loyal audience that continues in 2024. Fortnite boasts a humongous registered user base with outstanding engagement times. Here’s a breakdown of its most impressive user stats:

• One month after launch, the game achieved 1 million registered users. By the end of 2017, this number increased to 30 million. One month into 2018, the figure had reached 45 million.
• One year after launch, Fortnite had 200 million registered users.
• In May 2020, Epic games revealed that Fortnite had 350 million registered players.
• By the end of 2023, the game reached over 650 million registered users.

As shown by numbers, the player count increased exponentially during the past 4 years, being an impressive feat for Epic Games’ blockbuster. But what about the user engagement time? Here’s our top picks:

• 222,245,176 people played Fortnite this August 2024.
• There’s 1-3.5 million global concurrent users at any given time across all game modes.
• The average Fortnite user plays the game 8-10 hours per week.

With a record of 44.7 million players in a single day during its original season back in 2023, Fortnite remains as one of the most popular games out there.

How Many People Play Fortnite Daily?

The number of active Fortnite players changes over the day, reaching its peak at 2 p.m. According to activeplayer.io, there’s currently 631.783 active Fortnite players, reaching a 24-hour peak of 1.706.569 million players, with a 30 day daily average of 1.626.843 players. Its most popular modes are still Battle Royale (unranked) and Zero Build Battle Royale (unranked) and Reload, although newly added adventures such as LEGO Fortnite helped increase the number of daily players.

Player count per hour

Fortnite Player Demographics

Over half of Fortnite players (62%) are aged 18-24 years. This data, however, might not be translated to reality, since many younger users lie about their age to get access to Fortnite. The game is, in fact, considered the second most popular video game among pre-teens, with 26% of teenagers under the age of 13 playing the game.

The following graphic shows the percentage of Fortnite users in different age groups:

A recent analysis also revealed that 89.7% of Fortnite players are male, while only 10.3 are female.

How Does Fortnite Make Money?

As Fortnite is a free-to-play game, Epic Games included an in-game store to make the game profitable. The virtual shop allows players to buy skins and cosmetic items that players can purchase exchanging real money for its own virtual currency, known as V-Bucks (Vinderbucks). While purchasing these items is not mandatory, Twitch streams, tournaments and its Battle Royale nature made them extremely popular since the release of the game. Here are some of its most notable highlights about Fortnite’s monetization:

• 85% of Fortnite players have purchased DLC
• 58.9% of Fortnite users spend money on outfits and skins for their characters.
• The amount spent on Fortnite microtransactions increased during 2017-2019.
• An average of $84.67 was spent by each Fortnite player in 2018. By 2020, the number increased to $102.42.
• In April 2020, Epic Games logged $44 million in monthly users spending on the game.

Fortnite DOWNLOAD

Fortnite Annual Revenue (2018-2024)

Fortnite’s popularity can easily be seen through its revenue numbers. The game generated a whooping $5.4 billion during its first year, becoming a smash success for Epic Games. However, and as seen by the graphics, there was a massive drop in 2019, where the game “only” earnt $3.7 billion. This sudden decrease was the result of a disagreement with the iOS Appstore and the Android Play Store in 2018. However, Fortnite’s revenue made a comeback, generating $5.1 billion in 2020. Currently, it is estimated that the game will earn $5.82 by the end of 2024.

*estimated

Up until now, Fortnite has registered a revenue of over $26 billion.

What Type Of Devices Are Used By Fortnite Players?

One of the key ingredients to Fortnite’s success is its multi-platform and crossplay availability. Downloadable through multiple devices (PC, Xbox, PlayStation, MacOS and Android), Epic Games’ Battle Royale can be accessed through almost any platform except for iOS. Among them, 78% of Fortnite players prefer to play the game on a console.

Fortnite’s popularity on consoles is so big that, from March 2018 to July 2020, 46.8% of Fortnite’s overall revenue was generated from PlayStation 4 and 27.5% of it from Xbox One.

What Country Has The Most Fortnite Players?

According to recent estimates and with 108.2 million active users, the United States is the country with the largest number of Fornite players (21.10% of the total). Russia is in second position, with 7.54% of the share, closely followed by Brazil with 5.5%.

(source)

Fortnite On Twitch

Since its release half a decade ago, Epic Game’s free-to-play is one of the most streamed games on Twitch. As you can see in the table below, Fortnite is still in the top 3 streamed titles on the platform, with 30 million hours of content per week. But that’s not all, the game was also the 8th most popular game of Twitch with 46.53 million hours watched per month.

Who Are The Top Fortnite Players As Of 2024?

Fortnite players have earnt over $17 million in total, with the highest earnings of $3.4 million achieved by USA player Kyle Giersdorf (Gamer ID “Bugha”). He is closely followed by David Wang from Austria (Gamer ID “Aqua”), who achieved a total of $2.1 million, as well as USA player Harrison Chang (Gamer ID “psalm”) who won $1.9 million.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 Fortnite of 2024:

Fortnite DOWNLOAD

Conclusion: Is Fortnite Dying?

No, Fortnite is definitely not dying. Millions of players have continued to log in through 2023 and, with the release of Chapter 5 and the ongoing Marvel season, Epic’s Battle Royale still leads the list of the most downloaded and played games of the year. We can freely say there’s still years and years of Fortnite ahead of us.