Fortnite Reception

The Save the World mode achieved over one million players by August 2017, just prior to the release of Battle Royale.

Fortnite Battle Royale became a significant financial success for Epic Games, leading them to separate the teams between Save the World and Battle Royale to provide better support for both modes. Within two weeks of release, over 10 million players had played the mode, and by June 2018, just after the Nintendo Switch release, it had reached 125 million players. Revenue from Fortnite Battle Royale during the first half of 2018 had been estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars per month, with total 2018 revenue estimated at $2.4 billion by analysis firm SuperData Research. Total revenue for Fortnite reached more than $9 billion by the end of 2019.

Fortnite Battle Royale has also become a cultural phenomenon, with several celebrities reporting they play the game and athletes using Fortnite emotes as victory celebrations. A notable streaming event in March 2018, with streamer Ninja playing Fortnite Battle Royale alongside Drake, Travis Scott, Kim DotCom, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, broke viewership records for Twitch to date and led to Epic arranging a Fortnite Battle Royale pro-am with 50 pairs of streamers and professional players matched with celebrities at E3 2018 in June 2018. Epic Games has developed organised esports competitions around Fortnite Battle Royale, such as the inaugural US $30 million Fortnite World Cup tournament that took place in July 2019 and the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS), the latter of which would be organised by Epic Games in 2020 and 2021 before being organised by Blast ApS from 2022 onwards.

There has also been growing concern over Fortnite Battle Royale's draw toward young children, emphasised with the release of the mobile client. Parents and teachers had expressed concern that students are being distracted and drawn away from school work due to playing Fortnite. Concerns have also been raised about the impact that playing a game involving repeated depictions of gun violence may have on young children.