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How 'Fortnite' became the winner winner, chicken dinner of the Battle Royale genre

By Tanner Kinney Throughout gaming history, there seems to be a trend of the kings of a genre being a second or third major title released in that genre. It’s strange, but there is a bit of a trend. The first-person shooter genre was launched by Wolfenstein 3D, but was popularized by Doom. The real-time strategy genre as we know it now may have started with a game called Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, but came into the popular consciousness with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. The Japanese role-playing game was first introduced with Dragon Quest, but would become overshadowed by the more well-known Final Fantasy. Those games, however, were widely single-player genres. Now, the battle royale genre has both the major pioneer in the genre, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), and the real success, Fortnite: Battle Royale. It’s pretty much impossible to escape Fortnite. It’s a free-to-play multiplayer shooter that is available on anything with a screen and a graphics card. Younger kids without access to their parents’ credit cards can now play a shooter like their wealthier friends, and since it can be played on any console (other than Nintendo Switch, for now), most families have access to the game. Hell, it can be played on smartphones, and almost every young adult has one of those (back in my day grumble grumble gurgle roar). Yet, my friends and I all joke about the game, calling it a Pixar game, complaining about the obnoxious young fan base, and watching League of Legends viewer numbers plummet while streamers like Ninja are raking in six-digit viewer numbers and playing with Drake. Yes, that Drake, the rapper Drake, the actually successful celebrity. He’s playing Fortnite with some pleb who was a former Halo pro player. That’s how big Fortnite is.

Image from TMZ

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A League of their own

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Just got Fortnite, where we dropping?

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The future of Fortnite and Battle Royale

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