Fortnite, the current king of the battle royale genre, seems to be elevating that position to something more. Not too long ago, DJ Marshmello had their own concert in the game. It featured a full set of music, performed on a stage by a character rocking the musician’s helmet. But if you’ve watched the game’s past Travis Scott concert, you would know why this was so different, and why itattracted over 27 million unique viewers.
The Astronomical concert event lacked most things you’d find at a concert: overpriced tickets, merch the same way and oh, a stage. The entire performance was a played-back recording, however, it wasn’t performed by some dinky character that was just dressed up special. Instead, a giant version of Travis Scott took over the world ofÂFortnite, stomping around and teleporting to his top tracks. Eventually, the concert ditches the Earth and launches into space, displaying the trippy, psychedelic potential of the game’s engine.
This isn’t the first time the event’s numbers have made the news. In late April we reported on themassive spike in concurrent playersÂFortniteÂhad because of the concert, totaling in at a whopping 12.3 million.
FortniteÂhas found itself in a very good place after the success of this online event. Consider this, South By Southwest, one of the largest festivals in America, drew in 280,000 attendees last year. The attendance ofÂFortnite’s event is just over 96 times greater than that. Admittedly, as a gameÂFortniteÂhas some advantages - events can be run multiple days without hassle, and most importantly, they’re free.
With the Travis Scott event,ÂFortniteÂhas found itself elevated beyond a game, potentially into a platform. While there is no news yet of any other concerts taking place in the battle royale title, I would be shocked if there isn’t an announcement in the coming months.
FortniteÂis free to play on Xbox One, PC, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android.
