Fortnite is a 2017 online game and platform from Epic Games, though the version under review here carries a 2020 listing. The distinction matters: Save the World and Battle Royale both launched in 2017 as early access titles, while the platform kept growing after that. Epic’s own summary calls it a free-to-play space where you and your friends create, play and battle.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
Battle Royale, Save the World and Creative
Fortnite Battle Royale drops up to 100 players into a match where the last person standing wins. Zero Build removes the construction. Save the World, the cooperative tower defense-shooter and survival mode, puts up to four players against zombie-like creatures, defending objects with traps and fortifications they build themselves.
Creative arrived on December 6, 2018, and hands players complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas. Lego Fortnite splits into Lego Fortnite Odyssey, a survival game, and Lego Fortnite Brick Life, a social game. Rocket Racing handles racing. Fortnite Festival handles rhythm. All modes are free-to-play.
The modes share the same general gameplay and game engine. Platforms include Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, Android, PC, iOS, PlayStation 5, Mac, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Those platforms reflect availability across the platform’s life, not the 2017 early access release.
125 Million Players
The scale is not in dispute. Battle Royale drew more than 125 million players in less than a year and earned hundreds of millions of dollars per month. Fortnite as a whole generated $9 billion in gross revenue through December 2019, placing it among the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.
That figure is the tell. A game that makes that much money does not need to be good at any single thing. It needs to be adequate at everything and available everywhere, and Fortnite is.
What the modes are, in the order the source lists them:
- Fortnite Battle Royale — battle royale, up to 100 players
- Fortnite Save the World — cooperative tower defense-shooter and survival
- Fortnite Creative — free creation of worlds and battle arenas
- Lego Fortnite Odyssey — survival
- Lego Fortnite Brick Life — social
- Rocket Racing — racing
- Fortnite Festival — rhythm
That is a list, not a ranking. The source does not order the modes by quality, and this paper will not invent one.
Critics landed at 8.3 out of 10 across five outlets, per the IGDB critic aggregate. That is a strong score for a platform this sprawling, and it says something about how well the shared engine holds up across seven very different games. The battle royale remains the draw. What holds the whole thing back is bloat, and that is a judgment this paper makes, not one the source supplies.
Score: 8.3/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 5 outlets)
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