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The Fortnite Juggernaut rolls on. Last night Nintendo announced via Twitter that the Switch version of the popular (understatement) game had already clocked up 2m downloads from the eShop. With around 20m Switch consoles sold to date, that’s 1-in-10 that have downloaded the game in just two days.
How many of those players have actually played the game remains uncertain though. As many Epic accounts remain locked to the PS4 for console play, purely anecdotally we know more Switch owners who have given up upon seeing the lock-out message, than those who have persevered and made new accounts to play the game.
The Switch figures comes on the heels of Epic announcing that the game as a whole has 125m players – which puts that Switch figure (which most titles would kill for) into some perspective. That’s huge growth since the 40m figure that was quoted in January, as the game has become this year’s big craze – with the tabloid press piling in to heap blame for all and sundry on the game, an undeniable sign of success.
"But by the end of the year you’re gonna see predominantly major games for serious gamers being at the top of the [mobile] charts and staying there forever"
That’s no surprise to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who said to us earlier in the year: “These are games with PC and console heritage at the top of the mobile charts… But by the end of the year you’re gonna see predominantly major games for serious gamers being at the top of the charts and staying there forever. I think this is the future of mobile and it’s not going to change.”
The company is earning enough from its legion of players to happily stump up $100m dollars in prize funding for the competitive scene in 2018-2019.
Epic said in a statement regarding competition: "We’ll be supporting community organised events, online events, and major organised competitions all over the world, where anyone can participate, and anyone can win. Fortnite World Cup Qualifiers begin in Fall 2018, and culminate in the first Fortnite World Cup in late 2019. Whether you’re in the competition or watching at home, we want this to be fun for everyone."
