Two years after launch, Fortnite became a cultural phenomenon. The latest statistic shows that more than 250 million players have registered Epic accounts — that is more than two-thirds the size of the entire US population! The game has become an obsession for millions of fans and is showing no signs of slowing down.

But what caused that tremendous success? How has Fortnite differed itself from other games in the market? And how Epic games managed to appeal to such board rage of audiences without compromising on quality?

Although Fortnite has introduced some fairly innovative features along its eleventh seasons, the game foundations are based on familiar modules and mechanics. We explored the various reasons of why Fortnite is one of the most influential games in recent years.

It’s free to play

It’s no surprise that breaking the price barrier can create real opportunities for growing a user base. People love free stuff. The decision to go F2P opened the battle royale experience to all sorts of people: From the hardcore gamers to those who don’t usually spend money on video games. Even the most skeptical gamers didn’t have a good reason not to try the game for themselves.

Since the Battle Royale took the gaming world by storm, Fortnite reminds highly accessible to players while similar games like PUBG and COD: Black ops 4 (Blackout) still ask for your hard-earned cash.

Micro-transactions provide the missing piece in the model, allowing players to show off various skins and cosmetic items while keeping the playing field balanced in terms of gameplay.

It’s available on all devices

The potential player base of the game grew even more after Fortnite became available on various other devices.

Nowadays everyone has a phone, so everyone can play!

The fact that the game is available everywhere and for everyone lets the players bond together around this awesome game no matter what gaming device they have.

With the addition of cross-platform play, users now can enjoy the game with their friends, even if they play on different devices.

The idea of forcing mobile and console players to play against PC users caused many to protest. But this addition ultimately proved to be beneficial for the casual players and also resulted in much shorter queue times.

Pop culture crossovers

One of the unique aspects of Fortnite is the ability to cross genres. Fortnite makes sure to stay connected to the rest of the pop culture by integrating crossovers with other games, movies and famous franchises in the media world.

Fortnite joined hands with ‘Marvel‘ ’prior to the release of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ to bring us some fresh new skins, challenges, and game modes. The game also hosted a concert for the massively-popular EDM artist, Marshmello, which was attended by 10 million users worldwide. More worth to mention crossovers includes: ‘John wick’, ’Batman’ and ‘Stranger Things’.

Another act that sparked waves in non-gaming communities was when the professional gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, played Fortnite with the famous football player JuJu Smith-Schuster as well as with the rappers Drake and Travis Scott. The stream of them playing shattered viewing records on Twitch and helped boost the game popularity even more.

The focus on the casual

Epic puts a huge emphasis on new players’ experience.

Things like the B.R.U.T.E, Planes and the Infinity Blade were designed to make the game fun for the low skilled gamers. The latest attempt to even out the playing field included the implementation of a new Skill Based Matchmaking system and bots. Both features, while upsetting some pro-players, succeeded in keeping casual gamers engaged.

The effort made to balance the playing field made the game easy to join. Players who play the game for the first time can take things slow, gain a few easy kills and explore all the cool stuff around the island. When the amount of causal players exceeds the amount of the more experienced group, aiming for the less skilled users proved to be the right move.

Fortnite Changes Constantly

Since the beginning and throughout the seasons, the game introduced us to a ton of extra content. New weapons, items and mechanics were added regularly, keeping players excited and involved. Chapter 2 brought us a new map and the large scale in-game events were a great way to unite the community as seasons came to an end.

Fortnite players are never bored. There are always brand new items to get your hands on and cool stuff to look forward to.

On top of keeping things fresh, Epic listens to the community for the most part. Suggestions made by players were taken seriously by the developers. Changing the color of friendly traps or adding a new location to the map, were all ideas that came from the communities on Reddit. The game creators paid attention to outside critics and gamers felt like they can have real impact on how the game develops.