It's hard to log onto the internet in 2018 without coming across some type of content. Fortnite Battle Royale is a cartoony-looking shooter game that combines the building elements of with a battle royale, last man standing-style format. Over the past several months it has exploded in popularity. Fortnite holds the record for the most videos related to a video game uploaded in a single month to YouTube. Earlier this week, the game set a record for biggest single live gaming stream on YouTube with more than 1. In March, himself joined one of Twitch's most popular gaming streamers, Ninja, for a Fortnite game and the stream set for highest number of concurrent views. Fortnite has been endlessly memed by large-scale Instagram meme accounts and subreddits dedicated to gaming. Jake Roper, YouTube star and host of the YouTube channel Vsauce3, said the closest thing he's seen to the Fortnite craze is the explosion of cryptocurrency. It was like, 'Drake knows about this? How do I not know? For those who don't pay attention to gaming, the game's success can be particularly jarring. But the reality is that the confluence of factors that skyrocketed the game to fame have been building for years. Fortnite, unlike other games in its category, is completely free to download and play. For those who do need approval, the game's bright and cartoon-like aesthetic is more welcoming to parents than a traditional shooter game. The game is also widely available in a way that its predecessors weren't. You don't need a fancy or expensive gaming system to play Fortnite, all you need is a relatively new-ish computer. Once you do begin playing Fortnite, it's hard to stop. Fans have spoken about playing the game for and popular Twitch streamers are playing the game repeatedly. It was like, 'Drake knows about this? How do I not know? The creativity of the game and its non-traditional color scheme was not always a selling point. In fact, when the game initially began picking up steam in 2017 several big-name Twitch streamers, like Dr. Disrespect, shunned the product. Why would anyone play a cartoony-looking version of PUBG? They wondered aloud on their streams. PUBG was another popular shooting game that featured a similar battle royale format. But over time, those streamers and many other critics came to see the light. DisRespect, one of Twitch's most prominent gaming streamers, began to embrace the game this winter and in February. One thing that won him and his cohort over is the creative pop-culture integrations and references that Fortnite has become known for. The game adheres to a rapid development schedule and is constantly pushing timely updates in the form of skins and emotes. Skins are the body you inhabit in the game and emotes are certain. One popular emote allows your character to do a funny dance from Scrubs. After Drake played, that would allow their characters to mimic the rapper's famed dance. Because the game is free, these emotes are how Fortnite makes money and fans have shown they're willing to pay up. But according to Wyatt, Fortnite's biggest coup has been to expose just how prevalent gaming is in our culture and society. It's not just that YouTube stars, mainstream celebs, and artists like Drake and are playing Fortnite—it's that we all are, he argues. Victoria Rose at Polygon makes a similar point. How did this happen?
