Fortnite

Fortnite-hero - edited

Fortnite is an online video game and game platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in seven distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: Fortnite Battle Royale, a battle royale game in which up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing; Fortnite: Save the World, a cooperative hybrid tower defense-shooter and survival game in which up to four players fight off zombie-like creatures and defend objects with traps and fortifications they can build; Fortnite Creative, in which players are given complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas; Lego Fortnite, an open world game collection divided between survival game Lego Fortnite Odyssey and social game Lego Fortnite Brick Life; Rocket Racing, a racing game; Fortnite Festival, a rhythm game; and Fortnite Ballistic, a tactical first-person shooter currently in early access. All game modes except Save the World are free-to-play.

Save the World and Battle Royale were released in 2017 as early access titles, while Creative was released on December 6, 2018. While the Save the World and Creative versions have been successful for Epic Games, Fortnite Battle Royale in particular became an overwhelming success and a cultural phenomenon, drawing more than 125 million players in less than a year, earning hundreds of millions of dollars per month. Fortnite as a whole generated $9 billion in gross revenue up until December 2019, and it has been listed among the greatest games of all time.

Save the World is available for macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, while Battle Royale and Creative were released for all those platforms as well as Android and iOS devices and Nintendo Switch. The game also launched with the release of the ninth-generation PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. Furthermore, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, and Fortnite Ballistic are available on all platforms.

Game modes

Fortnite has multiple game modes, using the same engine; each has similar graphics and art assets. Five of these modes are directly created and managed by Epic Games and its subsidiaries:

  • Fortnite: Save the World is a player-versus-environment cooperative game, with four players collaborating towards a common objective on various missions while avoiding the effects of an encroaching cataclysmic storm. The players take the role of commanders of home base shelters, collecting resources, saving survivors, and defending equipment that helps to either collect data on the storm or to push back the storm. From missions, players are awarded a number of in-game items, which include hero characters, weapon and trap schematics, and survivors, all of which can be leveled up through gained experience to improve their attributes.
  • Fortnite Battle Royale is a player-versus-player game for up to 100 players, allowing one to play alone, in a duo, or in a squad (usually consisting of three or four players). Weaponless players airdrop from a "Battle Bus" that crosses the game's map, and then scavenge for weapons, items, and resources while trying to stay alive and to attack and eliminate other players. Over the course of a round, the safe area of the map shrinks down in size due to an incoming toxic storm; players outside that threshold take damage and can be eliminated if they fail to quickly evacuate. This forces remaining players into tighter spaces and encourages player encounters until the last player or team is alive. Alongside the main Battle Royale mode, three additional modes are also available: Zero Build, which removes building elements, Reload, which allows players to respawn after dying for a set amount of time, and OG, which re-introduces the classic Chapter 1 map and weapons. Furthermore, "Party Royale" served as a social space, which hosted various concert events.
  • Lego Fortnite is a platform for Lego-based games. The platform includes Odyssey, a survival sandbox game, where players play as Lego Minifig versions of characters, as they collect materials, build various buildings, craft various weapons and tools and fight against monsters; Brick Life, a social-based game designed as an age-appropriate Grand Theft Auto game.; and Lego Expeditions, a co-operation action-adventure mode where up to four players can select characters from different hero classes and customize tools and weapons to defeat enemies or complete puzzles.
  • Rocket Racing is a racing game, developed by Psyonix and serving as a spin-off title to Rocket League. Players race vehicles, gaining speed boosts from special lanes sections or by drifting, as well as the ability to jump and racing on vertical and inverted surfaces, while avoiding obstacles on the course.
  • Fortnite Festival is a rhythm game developed by Harmonix, consisting of three modes. In the "Main Stage", players play popular hit songs and original tracks created by Harmonix and the Epic Games Sound Team, hitting notes to the rhythm in the Main Stage on one of the four unique parts: Lead, Guitar/Bass, Drums and Vocals, in a manner similar to Harmonix's Rock Band games, while the "Battle Stage" pits sixteen players to get the highest score and survive each round until one player remains. In the "Jam Stage", players cooperate to make remixes, similar to Harmonix' Dropmix and Fuser, using any part of any song within Festival mode, in which are also usable in Battle Royale, Creative and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN).
  • Fortnite Ballistic is a five-on-five, round-based tactical shooter, comparable to Counter-Strike and Valorant, to launch in early access on December 11, 2024. One team must plant and protect a rift device while it is charging from the opposing team that seeks to eliminate them and disarm the device. Between rounds, players are able to buy in-game weapons and gear from currency earned in previous rounds. Ballistic is the first Epic-developed game on the Fortnite platform to directly support a first-person view.

In addition to these modes, Fortnite offers the sandbox mode, Fortnite Creative. Within this mode, players are given complete freedom to spawn any item from the Battle Royale gamemode on a personal island, and can create games such as battle arenas, race courses, platforming challenges, and more. Furthermore, it also supports Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which allows players to edit worlds using Fortnite assets. Creative and UEFN also allows players to create custom Fall Guys and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games which can be accessible within the Fortnite launcher.

All modes except Save the World are free-to-play; Save the World is pay-to-play. The games are monetized through the use of V-Bucks, in-game currency that can be purchased with real-world funds, but also earned through completing missions and other achievements in Save the World. In other modes, V-Bucks can be used to buy cosmetic items such as character models or the game's battle pass, a tiered progression of customization rewards for gaining experience and completing certain objectives during the course of a Battle Royale season. The battle pass originally was aimed to support Fortnite Battle Royale, and with the expansion of game modes in 2023, two addition passes were added, the Festival Pass for Fortnite Festival and Lego Pass for Lego Fortnite, each which required progression in those modes to receive rewards. In November and December 2024, Epic changed these mechanics, allowing both of those passes to be progressed through experience points earned in any Fortnite game mode, as well as renaming the Festival Pass to Music Pass. Similarly, the Fortnite Crew, a monthly subscription that paid for the cost of the main battle pass and additional cosmetics, was expanded during the same time to encompass the Music and Lego passes.

All modes of Fortnite are cross-platform play compatible, requiring users to use an Epic Games account for cross-saving between platforms.

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