In the two weeks that "Fortnite's" Battle Royale mode has been available, the mode has already garnered more than 10 million players, according to game developer Epic.
The news was shared via a Twitter post, while also showing a graphic showing the traps found, walls built, and umbrellas collected. The company also announced that the game has seen a total of almost 44.5 million playing hours, and over 2.92 million characters have jumped from the battle bus, which is typically how the game begins.
The game mode has been increasing in popularity, proving that there is high demand for the Battle Royale genre in today's gaming landscape. On its launch day, "Fortnite: Battle Royale" recorded over one million players. A week later, on Oct. 8, it tallied 3.7 million players and peaked with more than half a million players that day.
Even before the mode was launched, "Fortnite: Battle Royale" stirred commotion due to its obvious similarities with "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." Epic even publicly stated that "Battlegrounds" was a huge inspiration for the new game mode.
On the other side, Bluehole Studios, the team behind "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" took issue that Epic released a game that replicated the experience that "Battlegrounds" is known for. Epic is also the creator of the game engine that "Battlegrounds" used and payed royalty for.
"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is generally solely credited for the rise in popularity of the Battle Royale game genre, where dozens of players are dropped into a huge map to fight each other and the winner is the last man standing.
Recently, the game broke records on PC gaming platform Steam by tallying more than two million concurrent players. This popularity has been unheard of especially for a game that is technically not yet completed. "Battlegrounds" is expected to get an official PC release later this year, with an Xbox One version being developed.
