Fortnite

Fortnite is distributed as three different game modes, using the same engine; each has similar graphics, art assets, and game mechanics.

• Fortnite: Save the World is a player-versus-environment cooperative game, with four players collaborating towards a common objective on various missions. The game is set after a fluke storm appears across Earth, causing 98% of the population to disappear, and the survivors to be attacked by zombie-like "husks". The players take the role of commanders of home base shelters, collecting resources, saving survivors, and defending equipment that helps to either collect data on the storm or to push back the storm. From missions, players are awarded a number of in-game items, which include hero characters, weapon and trap schematics, and survivors, all of which can be leveled up through gained experience to improve their attributes.
• Fortnite Battle Royale is a player-versus-player game for up to 100 players, allowing one to play alone, in a duo, or in a squad (usually consisting of three or four players). Weaponless players airdrop from a "Battle Bus" that crosses the game's map. When they land, they must scavenge for weapons, items, resources, and even vehicles while trying to stay alive and to attack and eliminate other players. Over the course of a round, the safe area of the map shrinks down in size due to an incoming toxic storm; players outside that threshold take damage and can be eliminated if they fail to quickly evacuate. This forces remaining players into tighter spaces and encourages player encounters. The last player, duo, or squad remaining is the winner.
• Fortnite Creative is a sandbox game mode, similar to Minecraft in that players are given complete freedom to spawn everything that is within the game on an island, and can create games such as battle arenas, race courses, platforming challenges, and more.

Players can use their pickaxe to knock down existing structures on the map to collect basic resources that are wood, brick, and metal. Subsequently, in all modes, the player can use these materials to build fortifications, such as walls, floors, and stairs. Such fortification pieces can be edited to add things like windows or doors. The materials used have different durability properties and can be updated to stronger variants using more materials of the same type. Within Save the World this enables players to create defensive fortifications around an objective or trap-filled tunnels to lure husks through. In Battle Royale, this provides the means to quickly traverse the map, protect oneself from enemy fire, or to delay an advancing foe. Players are encouraged to be very inventive in designing their fortifications in Creative.

While Battle Royale and Creative are free-to-play, Save the World is pay-to-play.[2] The games are monetized through the use of V-Bucks, in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world funds, but also earned through completing missions and other achievements in Save the World. V-Bucks in Save the World can be used to buy loot boxes, in the form of piñatas shaped like llamas, to gain a random selection of items. In Battle Royale, V-Bucks can be used to buy cosmetic items like character models or the like, or can also be used to purchase the game's battle pass, a tiered progression of customization rewards for gaining experience and completing certain objectives during the course of a Battle Royale season.[3][4]

The Fortnite Pro-Am event at E3 2018

The Save the World mode achieved over one million players by August 2017, just prior to the release of Battle Royale.[21]

Fortnite Battle Royale became a significant financial success for Epic Games, leading them to separate the teams between Save the World and Battle Royale to provide better support for both modes. Within two weeks of release, over 10 million players had played the mode,[22] and by June 2018, just after the Nintendo Switch release, had reached 125 million players.[23] Revenue from Fortnite Battle Royale during the first half of 2018 had been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars per month,[24][25] with total 2018 revenue estimated at $2.4 billion by analysis firm SuperData Research.[26]

Fortnite Battle Royale has also become a cultural phenomenon,[27] with several celebrities reporting they play the game, and athletes using Fortnite emotes as victory celebrations.[28] A notable streaming event in March 2018, with streamer Ninja playing Fortnite Battle Royale alongside Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, broke viewership records for Twitch to date, and led to Epic arranging a Fortnite Battle Royale pro–am with 50 pairs of streamers and professional players matched with celebrities at E3 2018 in June 2018.[29][30][31] Epic Games has developed organized esports competitions around Fortnite Battle Royale, such as the inaugural US$30 million Fortnite World Cup tournament that took place in July 2019.[32][33]

There has also been growing concern over Fortnite Battle Royale's draw toward young children, emphasized with the release of the mobile client. Parents and teachers had expressed concern that students are being distracted and drawn away from school work due to playing Fortnite.[34] Concerns have also been raised about the impact that playing a game involving repeated depictions of gun violence may have on young children.[35][36]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fortnite.

• Official website