Fortnite Hits 40 Million Players; 2 Million Concurrent Players

Fortnite may have started as a cooperative base-building survival game, but it only really hit its stride when it decided to shamelessly ape PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, creating its own battle royal mode. It was laughed off at the time, but their dedication to the spin-off, as well as their efforts to make it unique through whacky weapons, crazy modes, and improved base-building has turned it into a real competitor: especially for people who prefer it’s free-to-play approach.

And while PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is certainly still the biggest name in the business, Fortnite is catching up: Epic just announced that it has officially hit 40 million players, and that the number of concurrent players just broke two million, making it one of the most played games in the world right now.

Since it’s not on Steam, there’s no way to really verify Epic’s claim. And on top of that, there’s no way to see exactly how the numbers split—or how many people are playing the cooperative zombie mode vs how many are playing the battle royal mode. Plus, since it’s free, this is by no means a measure of “success”: they still need to rely on people spending money on the game to get by, and if no one is doing that, it wouldn’t matter how many people are messing around for free.

That said, to celebrate the news, Epic announced that a major map update will be coming later this week, which will add five new named locations in the western half of the map, including a town that will be the biggest in the game so-far. There will also be a series of mine shafts added that will complement close-quarters combat, and will hopefully liven up the arena for long-time players. Bad news, though, for anyone hoping for a second map, is that it’s currently not being planned, although it’s not out of the question.

How much bigger will it grow? Who knows? I’m eager to find out, though.