Fortnite's Battle Royale reaches 20 million downloads

Epic Games' free-to-play battle royale edges in front of main rival PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but remains well behind on concurrent players

News by Ivy Taylor Contributor

Published on Nov. 7, 2017

Fortnite's Battle Royale has been downloaded 20 million times, finally surpassing its main rival PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Since launching the free-to-play battle royale mode in late September, developer Epic Games positioned Fortnite in direct competition with the monolithic PUBG.

We just passed 20 million players across all of Fortnite since launch! Thanks from the bottom of our 💗💜💚 pic.twitter.com/LuVV5vb7wj
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) November 6, 2017

While it has now crept ahead of PUBG, which is currently just shy of 20 million users, it still lags dramatically behind in terms of concurrent players. Despite enjoying an admittedly impressive peak of 800,000, it's still overshadowed by PUBG which regularly exceeds two million, according to data from Steam Spy.

The meteoric rise isn't beyond explanation however. PUBG, which popularised the battle royale format, is a $30 download and only available on PC. Fortnite's Battle Royale, on the other hand, is not only a free download but also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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