Fortnite Battle Royale

Fortnite Battle Royale is a 2017 battle royale video game produced by Epic Games. Part of the overall Fortnite platform, the game follows up to 100 players competing to be the last player or team remaining. Matches begin with players descending onto a large island map, where they gather weapons, items, and resources from scattered locations while attempting to avoid damage from both other players and a continuously shrinking safe zone. A building system allows players to use gathered materials—wood, stone, and metal—to create temporary structures that can be used for movement, defense, or combat. The game is played from a third-person perspective.

The game is organized into chapters and seasons, each bringing updates to the map, gameplay, and cosmetic content. Players may purchase an in-game currency, V-Bucks, used to buy cosmetic items such as outfits and emotes. A seasonal "Battle Pass", also purchased with V-Bucks, provides additional content and unlockable tiers. New modes have been introduced since launch, including Zero Build, which removes building mechanics, as well as ranked gameplay and other special formats with different rulesets. Some modes and updates are tied to promotional collaborations with film, television, and music properties.

Development began in mid-2017, following the popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Built using assets from Fortnite: Save the World, the mode was originally planned as part of the paid version of Fortnite, but was released separately as a free title. Epic Games launched the mode after two months of development, later assigning a dedicated team to support its rapid growth. The game expanded to additional platforms, including consoles and mobile devices, and later introduced cross-platform play and moved to a newer version of the Unreal Engine to improve performance and add new technology.

Fortnite Battle Royale has received widespread attention and commercial success, with hundreds of millions of registered players and significant revenue across multiple platforms. Critics praised the building mechanics, accessibility, frequent content updates, and cross-platform functionality. Critics have also noted concerns about its monetization system, learning curve, and in-game purchases. The game has had a broad cultural reach, appearing in live events, esports, and licensed media, and has been involved in disputes related to copyright, platform policies, consumer protection, and digital privacy.

The core gameplay of Fortnite Battle Royale follows the standard structure of the battle royale genre, played from a third-person perspective. Matches typically consist of up to 100 players, either competing individually or in squads of two, three, or four. Each round begins with players skydiving from a flying "Battle Bus" and landing on the island map. The island features a fixed layout with various named landmarks and points of interest. These locations contain randomly scattered chests that hold weapons, shields, and other combat resources. Only five items at a time can be stored in the inventory. Weapons are divided into rarities that dictate how much damage they inflict: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

The primary objective is to be the last player or team remaining, achieved by either eliminating opponents or avoiding them. In solo play, players are immediately eliminated once their health is fully depleted, but in squad modes, they become "downed" and may be revived by teammates or finished off by enemies. Originally, eliminated players were removed from the match entirely, but an update in April 2019 introduced "Reboot Vans" that allow teammates to revive a fallen player. These vans are scarce and typically placed in exposed locations, making the act of reviving a teammate a risk. Throughout the match, the playable area of the map, represented by the eye of a storm, gradually shrinks, and players outside the safe zone take increasing damage over time. This directs the surviving players into tighter spaces, forcing player encounters. Hostile NPCs, introduced in February 2020, can be defeated for additional or improved loot, while friendly NPCs, added in December 2020, offer services such as selling items, healing players, or temporarily joining the player as AI-controlled allies.

Fortnite Battle Royale's main distinction from other battle royale games is the building system. Using the pickaxe, the only item given at the start of each game, nearly every object in the environment can be destroyed and harvested for materials—wood, stone, and metal—which players use to construct temporary structures like walls, ramps, floors, and roofs. These structures can serve to navigate the terrain, block incoming fire, or hinder enemy movement. Lighter materials allow for quick builds but are easily destroyed, while stronger materials are more durable but slower to place.

Fortnite Battle Royale is free-to-play and monetized via microtransactions, allowing players to purchase "V-Bucks," a shared currency also usable in Save the World. Players can earn V-Bucks in Save the World by completing missions and daily objectives, then spend them in Battle Royale on cosmetic upgrades—such as outfits, gliders, emotes, backblings, and pickaxes. The game is structured into chapters, each containing several seasons that typically last ten weeks. Every season introduces a new set of cosmetic items available through a "Battle Pass", which players progress through by gaining experience via gameplay or completing different challenges. A selection of rewards is free, but purchasing the full Battle Pass with V-Bucks grants access to all tiered rewards, and players can also spend V-Bucks to skip tiers. In December 2020, Epic launched the "Fortnite Crew" subscription, providing members with the latest Battle Pass, a monthly V-Bucks stipend, and exclusive cosmetic content.