Fortnite Battle Royale Is Now the Most Viewed Game on YouTube

By Zac Cameron · April 3, 2018 at 8:05 AM UTC

The smash hit from Epic Games has crossed another massive milestone, according to influencer marketing platform Matchmade.

The wildly successful game Fortnite Battle Royale has crossed another milestone, becoming the most viewed videogame on YouTube after overtaking Minecraft. Fortnite now holds the record for the most videos related to a video game uploaded in a single month ever, according to Ryan Wyatt of YouTube, and has smashed the simultaneous viewing record just weeks ago when Spanish YouTuber ElrubiusOMG hosted a Fortnite tournament.

How big is @FortniteGame on YouTube? Fortnite holds the record for the most videos related to a video game uploaded in a single month EVER. Yesterday, the Battle Royale tournament had over 42M live views, and set a record for biggest single live gaming stream @ 1.1M concurrent.
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) March 26, 2018

We’ve already seen just how popular the game has become, with streamers such as Tyler “Ninja” Belvins hosting celebrities such as Drake and Travis Scott to hundreds of thousands of viewers, making it one of the most watched games on Twitch.tv as well. The rise of Fortnite is definitely affecting the viewership of other games, with former juggernauts such as Minecraft, PUBG, and Clash Royale all falling before the wave of Fortnite content.

The numbers don't lie when it comes to the success of Fortnite (graph from Matchmade)

It remains to be seen exactly how far Fortnite will go, but with its growing player base now branching out to include mobile gamers, it’s no surprise that Fortnite is on track to become one of, if not the most played game of all time.

While the exact reason for the success of Fortnite on platforms such as YouTube is difficult to pin down, according to Matchmade the answer sits with a combination of factors. For starters, the game is free to play and on multiple platforms, which means it’s extremely accessible to a very large audience. Secondly, it’s very new compared to its competitors, having only released towards the end of last year. YouTube has also recently changed the way in which new content is delivered to viewers, which could be a factor in how new viewers are exposed to the game. And perhaps the most valuable reason for its success, is the fact that it is a very fun game to play.