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If Fortnite Were a Website, It Would Rival Reddit and Amazon (tomsguide.com)

Tom's Guide gives us some perspective on just how big of a cultural phenomenon the game Fortnite is: "if Fortnite were a website, it would be one of the top five in the United States." From the report: Take a quick look at Alexa's list of top U.S. websites, and you'll see Google, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and Amazon in the top five. No surprises there. But as a quick Google Trends search reveals, Fortnite has become a hotter search term than Reddit. What some might see as a flash-in-the-pan gaming fad is actually outpacing one of the web's hottest destinations.

"More people in the U.S. are searching for 'Fortnite' on Google than they are for 'Reddit' and these searches have risen sharply over the last two months," said John DeFeo, VP of Internet Marketing at Purch, Tom's Guide's parent company. "When you consider that Fortnite had more than 3 million concurrent players in February, I believe that if Fortnite were a website, it would be among the top five in the U.S., duking it out with Reddit and Amazon."

112 comments

  1. Game of the week by DogDude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've never heard this game until the media started writing about it this past week. Sounds like a currently popular game. Neat?

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      So you've been living under a rock. Fortnite is a free-to-play game, famous mostly for riding the "battle royale" wave created by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is the other big game that you probably haven't heard about. Players parachute into a huge open map where they can fight other players and collect items. After a while, a shrinking "force field" appears. Anyone who stays or moves outside the shrinking area continuously takes damage. This forces the players to congregate and fight. Last player alive wins.

    2. Re:Game of the week by Calydor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So it's like Bomberman on the SNES, but with more players?

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    3. Re:Game of the week by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So popular that gaming sites are being told to popularize it even more. Even slashdot is advertising for it. Such a popular game would never go anywhere unless we spam the world about its existence!

    4. Re:Game of the week by Darinbob · · Score: 2, Funny

      As an anonymous coward, how do we know you're not just blatantly advertising?

    5. Re:Game of the week by Aereus · · Score: 1

      Technically speaking, "battle royale" was *popularized* by PUBG, but actually saw its initial interest from zombie survival games like H1Z1, Ark, etc. But yes the TLDR is there was a game last year (PUBG) which became really popular for battle royale gameplay and Fortnite was originally a wave-defense game that jumped on the bandwagon quickly with their own battle royale mode which wildly eclipsed the original game mode in popularity and ate PUBG's lunch.

    6. Re:Game of the week by rsmith-mac · · Score: 2

      It's been going on for a while now. You may only have heard of it, but your kids have been playing it since late last year.

      It's gotten to the point where my sister's school is in the midst of trying to come up with a better solution to keeping the kids from playing the mobile version of the game during class. The usual threats aren't working; they just go right back to it the next day. (And if they aren't playing about it, then it's all they want to talk about)

    7. Re:Game of the week by DogDude · · Score: 1

      Don't have kids. Don't know anything about what they do.

      But, if it wasn't this game, wouldn't kids just be playing some other game on their gadgets? Is there anything unique or interesting about this game? It seems like it's just another average shoot-em up.

      --
      I don't respond to AC's.
    8. Re: Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's worse is now we can expect a huge glut of Battle Royale games (and modes). I've nothing intrinsically against it, but it's really just a deathmatch which I grew bored of years ago in favour of team based games.

    9. Re:Game of the week by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      If threats don't work, you move onto punishments. Or is that crazy talk?

      Oh, and when I went to school a few decades ago, videogames were all we wanted to talk about too. Kids tend to dive very deeply into new fads, and it tends to scare the shit out parents and school administrators.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    10. Re:Game of the week by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 2

      So popular that gaming sites are being told to popularize it even more. Even slashdot is advertising for it. Such a popular game would never go anywhere unless we spam the world about its existence!

      I hadn't heard of it so googled it. Most of the results had clickbait headlines "Fortnite is the biggest game on the planet right now" which leads me to believe this is some giant marketing campaign designed to hook people by sensational claims of popularity and FOMO and Slashdot is on the payroll. No doubt we'll see plenty more stories about it in the coming weeks.

    11. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You live under a rock? Fortnite is leading every game on twitch by millions hours

    12. Re: Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, I second this. Really the only two game mechanics that differ Battle Royal from Deathmatch is that you (usually) have more starting players and that you only have one life. So more people to kill me and most of us will sit and watch while the others finish the match. Yawn.

      When I got hooked on MAG I never looked back at deathmatches again. Unfortunately no other games have made a team based, objective based action game that heavily promotes team play. Still today most FPS promotes killing enemies over playing objectives, which is apparent in the scoring.

    13. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it is not a marketing campaign. It is huge. Unfortunately - since it took players away from games that are better IMHO. But it is F2P so that has increased its spread.

    14. Re:Game of the week by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Why do you care? The post was modded 'informative' so clearly people felt it contributed to the discussion.

    15. Re:Game of the week by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Irrelevant.

      OP's "point" is bullshit.

      I had never heard of it either, until recently. As, it turns out, many of my friends had not either.

      So what do they do? What did I do? Look it up on Google. As did many thousands of other people within a single week.

      A peak in search activity does NOT translate into people actually going there, or playing the game.

      That premise is just ridiculous.

    16. Re: Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then try the other (original, paid) mode of Fortnite, which is co-op against zombies. With a story line and progression and loot and resources and crafting, oh my. Lots of fun!

    17. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you agree it's advertising - being passed as news?

    18. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Advertising what exactly? The game that is mostly famous for riding a wave created by another game? Or the other game that is not as big?

    19. Re:Game of the week by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      If threats don't work, you move onto punishments. Or is that crazy talk?

      Yep, that's considered crazy talk now ... look up "restorative justice" ...

    20. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and more cheaters

    21. Re: Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah but it really is thrilling to be the last of 100.

    22. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's gotten to the point where my sister's school is in the midst of trying to come up with a better solution to keeping the kids from playing the mobile version of the game during class. The usual threats aren't working; they just go right back to it the next day.

      Just threaten to take away their rubber band looms and fidget spinners. Or step up the Minecraft-based curriculum to show that the teachers are hip to the latest teen trends. If all else fails, slap bracelets. And then there's the nuclear option - yearbook photos from the '80s showing everyone with hideous big hair. If that can't break them from the latest fad, nothing will. Except 6 months of time. But that's, like, forever.

    23. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rocks are comfy and don't require their resident to have this twitching syndrome you speak of.

    24. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Considering it was purely informational (and did not gloss over the whole "riding the battle royale wave created by PUBG" part) and not an attempt to tantalize, why would you even think it was advertising? Is any description of a game now considered advertising?

    25. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it's boring as hell. The single life thing ruins it for me. Maybe I just need to get better, but even the rounds where I went top 5 weren't that exciting.

    26. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, we used to load games on our TI-XX calculators and play them instead of paying attention in Algebra. Bonus: it looked more like you were actually trying to do work when you did it on your calculator.

      The solution is simple. Cell phones are not allowed on your person during class. You need them for emergencies my ass. The real emergency is that your kid is wasting 8 hours in school every day and is still going to be a moron.

    27. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never heard this game until the media started writing about it this past week.

      That must have cost them a lot of shekels.

    28. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my sister's school is in the midst of trying to come up with a better solution to keeping the kids from playing

      Wifi and cellphone jammers. There you go.
      Or, take the phone away during their daily entrance search for firearms

    29. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, but you cannot judge a message by its messenger. I mean perhaps you are from PUBG and are here trying to stir things up.

    30. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We used to do the same thing with the random level generator in Soldier of Fortune 2 - big DM games where the only objective was to hold whatever structure was closest to the center of the random map.

    31. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A question was asked (What is fortnite?). That question was answered. Seems retarded to call that answer "advertising", but if you truly feel it is, then perhaps you could answer the question in such a way that does not violate whatever rules you have for determining if it counts as advertising?

    32. Re:Game of the week by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      NPR ran a story about it on Saturday.

      I suppose their job is to comment on cultural phenomena like this, but I could really do without pieces that amount to nothing more than an ad for some product.

    33. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So popular that gaming sites are being told to popularize it even more. Even slashdot is advertising for it. Such a popular game would never go anywhere unless we spam the world about its existence!

      I hadn't heard of it so googled it. Most of the results had clickbait headlines "Fortnite is the biggest game on the planet right now" which leads me to believe this is some giant marketing campaign designed to hook people by sensational claims of popularity and FOMO and Slashdot is on the payroll. No doubt we'll see plenty more stories about it in the coming weeks.

      Same, I never heard a single person mention it before last week and haven't heard that single person mention it again either. I only know of one of my friends who plays this PUBG, had to ask him WTH he was even talking about.

    34. Re:Game of the week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it's like Bomberman on the SNES, but with more players?

      In the same way that Age of Empires is like Tetris, but with more players.

  2. Don’t laugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When Slashdotters were kids you were all playing Pokemon and Doom as the fad games. Myspace was a top 5 site too.

    1. Re:Don’t laugh by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

      I was in college when I played Doom and my roommate played Pokémon. We also played Magic The Gathering card game in the wee hours. Slashdot came along a few years later.

  3. Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everyone knows about it already. Not many people know about the latest games. If it is featured in articles (like this one) people will search for it to find out what it is.

    1. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by tonique · · Score: 1

      Some people don't use bookmarks or type the a part of the URL to the address bar -- they google the site.

    2. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But why? That just introduces another step and chance for error into the process.

    3. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by corezz · · Score: 1

      I use to live in a dorm and many of us would have our doors open to allow anyone to walk in at any time. Through my years i had sat with many of these people (many were friends) and one consistent thing i saw was that not one, NOT ONE would ever bookmark anything. They would always use google to re-search what they wanted (assuming they had a desktop/laptop). It was totally bizarre. They'd google for Facebook 20x a day, GMaps 5-10 times per day, Youtube, and Amazon ... and i think that is all they ever searched for since to them that was the entire Internet. Despite, letting them know one could bookmark the site, they just didn't care to use the feature. They'd just considered googling as quicker and more efficient.

    4. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know this is hard to believe, but people aren't born knowing everything.
      For everything you think everyone knows, roughly 10,000 new people learn it every day.

    5. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      A dumb fuck where I used to work always went to any website using Google search. His rationale was that the company (this was on his work computer) would keep track of what urls he was going to if he typed the url in directly.

    6. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by tonique · · Score: 1

      They probably don't know better. See also alvinrod's comment. "Don't know better" or "idiots", choose your expression.

    7. Re: Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you say so. Fortnite grew faster than 10k per day, for instance.

    8. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      To be fair, I wouldn't want anybody browsing on my PC (and able to see my bookmarks) knowing I visited Reddit either.

    9. Re: Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would not believe how many people do not know the difference between the URL bar and the search bar.

    10. Re:Why would you search for "Reddit" though? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      They'd just considered googling as quicker and more efficient.

      Well, maybe it was.

      Unless you use the bookmarks bar and keep it showing, typing a few letters and autocompleting your way there (whether autocompleted URL or autocompleted search term) quite likely is faster.

  4. It is popular today. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know why people act as if any particular current piece of pop culture will be here forever. Just remember previous things: MySpace, Everquest, Diablo, The Beatles, Pop Rocks, Pet Rocks, etc.

    Fortnite is just the latest obsession, and it will fizzle away, replaced by some future obsession.

    1. Re: It is popular today. by JohnStock · · Score: 1

      Everquest and its successor Everquest 2 are still going and get xpacs

    2. Re:It is popular today. by rail2rail · · Score: 1

      Anyone remember Slashdot?

    3. Re:It is popular today. by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

      Fortnite is going to be as big as Facebook, as popular as AOL, as enduring as Sun Microsystems.

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. First PUBG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First PUBG, now Fortnite.

    A website that provides information is not equivalent to a video game in terms of long term value to users. I've not played either of these games. But a year from now the community around this game will be a tiny fraction of what it is. That's just the nature of this industry.

  7. Yeah remember Pokémon GO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That's barely a year old and remember how it was some national obsession? Now you don't hear shit about it anymore. Why? Because people move on. People will move on from Fortnite too.

    1. Re: Yeah remember Pokémon GO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You moved on. It still has a huge user base.

  8. Remember television? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At some point like 80% of the nation would sit down to watch it at the same time.

    1. Re:Remember television? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At some point like 80% of the nation would sit down to watch it at the same time.

      What the hell are you talking about?

      The superbowl being watch by about a third of the US population is currently the record (assuming you meant the US).

      If you were talking about Pokemon, I'd have to guess very generously that it was more like 2%.

    2. Re: Remember television? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See post title. He meant telvision generally.

  9. If China Were a Website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It'd be in the top five! If fortnight were furniture store it'd be the largest! If fortnight were a website and named Facebook it'd be in the top!

  10. Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "More people in the U.S. are searching for 'Fortnite' on Google than they are for 'Reddit' and

    Why would you search for reddit on Google?

    Wouldn't you just -- you know -- type "reddit.com" into the address bar, or better yet, bookmark it? Then you don't have to worry about some temporary hijacking of search results that got a malicious site spelled something like "reddlt" ranked above the real result in the search results. Also, it's one less step to get there, compared to type it into Google, finding the result you want, and clicking on it.

    What would be the reason you'd want to search for it on google?

    1. Re: Wait, what? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Half of internet users are idiots that cannot understand how a browser works. To them, it is perfectly normal to type in the name of a website and click on the first link in Google. To them, that is the way the internet works. Smart bars were not born out of convenience, but from endless support tickets from idiots about not being able to get to a website. Most browsers even hide the full URL as the site of this terrified many a folk. These are the same people who clicked the punch the monkey banner ads and fucked up the web for the rest of us.

    2. Re: Wait, what? by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

      Half of internet users are idiots that cannot understand how a browser works. To them, it is perfectly normal to type in the name of a website and click on the first link in Google.

      We should make a name server that resolves arbitrary strings into their first Google hits. In time, this could become another level in the DNS hierarchy.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re: Wait, what? by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 2

      Most browsers even hide the full URL as the site of this terrified many a folk.

      I know that when I see a URL it scares the hell out of me. What is all that technobabble? If I don't understand it, it's clearly a liberal conspiracy designed to take my guns off me...

    4. Re:Wait, what? by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      I guess i'm part of the problem. I kind of gave up on synchronizing bookmarks across the three different devices that i primarily use, so if something isn't immediately available in the URL history i'll just google it. I figure Google is a lot more likely to notice if i accidentally type "redddit" or "redit" than i am.

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    5. Re: Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Angry because the monkey was too fast for you? Only winners could punch the monkey.

    6. Re: Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Half of internet users are idiots that cannot understand how a browser works.

      That seems like a rather generous assessment.

    7. Re: Wait, what? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 1

      We should make a name server that resolves arbitrary strings into their first Google hits. In time, this could become another level in the DNS hierarchy.

      That was included in one of the proposals for universal document identifiers, before URLs and URIs took over. Instead of typing "http://ford.com", you would type "Ford Motor Co." and the two would be identical to the machine. Not a search, but a lookup.

      That layer has never been developed, and the need was mostly obviated by the rise of search engines.

  11. Slashdotters: What is this 'Fortnite'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I am too lazy to google (/. gives better answers anyway), and never heard of the game so far.

    1. Re:Slashdotters: What is this 'Fortnite'? by Darinbob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's just a pvp game with a slightly different twist. Any place you go to read about it will inevitably be so highly gushing in praise and amazement that you'll never know if it was a paid advertisement or a real review.

  12. Just yet another PVP shooter. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all you had to say.

  13. Reddit is a failing community, like /. is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In my opinion, reddit is failing due to the same factors that sunk /. from being the premier technology discussion site into near total irrelevance today. In both cases we've seen abusive moderation of various forms create an intolerant 'circle-jerk' environment where original thoughts are quashed. This prevents new participants from staying very long, while the existing community ends up dwindling over time. Soon the community loses the momentum it once had, and thus begins to become less and less relevant each day. Even if the site is still operational some years later, like /. still is, it's a pathetic disgrace compared to what it once was, before abusive moderation created a rotten environment where adhering to ideology matters more than having intelligent discussion.

    1. Re: Reddit is a failing community, like /. is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is a pathetic disgrace, and yet you are still here.

    2. Re: Reddit is a failing community, like /. is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot failed because nerds have little of substance to say. They are insecure followers of the counterpoint. They parrot jokes for years after they've lost any semblance of relevance. Slashdot also failed because editors don't care to post timel stories

    3. Re: Reddit is a failing community, like /. is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean they are just linking to other news sites as they come across things they find on other tech blogs?

    4. Re: Reddit is a failing community, like /. is by minstrelmike · · Score: 1

      slashdot fialed for the same reason reddit is failing and why wikipedia and usenet failed. At first, communities are interesting and newcomers are welcome. After a few years, the community becomes inbred and rejects n00bs nd folks with the wrong jargon. It ain't new behavior and it ain't restricted to computers or nerds. See Religion.

  14. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares? I mean literally, other than video game salesmen, who cares?

    When I need to buy a new video game, I go to the video game store and buy something that's in my budget.

    I don't care if it's AI powered, checkerboard rendering powered, or fairy dust powered. A video game is a video game is a video game.

    1. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you care about anything? Really?

      If you care about a video game, especially a multiplayer video game, you might want to hear that there are a lot of players to play with. If you play a multi player video game that start the matches with 100 players rather than the 8, 16 or 40 which you have in other games, you want there to be a SHITLOAD of players so you don't have to wait for too long until a match starts.

      Having said that –I played the game, didn't like it and have never looked back. I play a lot of team based games and I and a couple of friends usually are the support roles for the rest of the team, something that is rewarded only in a few games. In Battlefield 3 I was the spotter and often turned the tide on many matches by making sure snipers and campers were routed out and making sure that objectives were cleared of enemies. In this game you are alone or playing in a small squad, but the entire premise of the popular game mode is to stay alive and kill everyone else.

      But to answer your question who cares, I answer it with another question. Who cares what you think?

  15. comment subject by Falos · · Score: 1

    didn't this flavor of the week get slashvertised two days ago?

  16. Also shocking news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'Fortnite' is searched for more often than 'Google'!
    Obviously this means that FBR is more popular, and therefore worth more money. So invest in us. Please?

    -- FBR publisher, Epic Games

  17. Unlike those web sites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unlike those websites, its rise was quick, likewise its fall shall be as well. It's called a fad.

  18. Google trends is the wrong tool by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

    Apparently Reddit is more popular than Amazon, yet the Google Trends for amazon vs reddit shows the opposite.
    https://trends.google.com/tren...

    The number of people who google "youtube" is even higher.
    The numbers for "google" are even higher again.

  19. Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid off by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fortnite's metascore (average of reviews) is 77 for PS4, 78 for PC. Its user ratings are 4.7 (out of 10) for PS4, 3.4 for PC. That sort of divergence between review and user ratings is usually a pretty good indication that reviewers are being paid to promote the game.

  20. If Fortnight were a website, nobody would play it by hashish · · Score: 1

    What a stupid title... I know they are trying to get people to associated usage with something tangible, but comparing it to a website is silly. And the number of searches has no numerical purpose at all; apart from people who may have heard of it and searched it but will probably never play it.

  21. Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on youtube by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    He's an 18 year old that doesn't annoy me. I like Fortnite but not that good at it, I guess I play Fortnite through him.

    Fortnite is very popular at the moment, as are Fortnite streams on Twitch.tv and Youtube.

    I started watching when he had some 300K youtube subscribers, now over 800K and pulling in 20K a day now.

  22. I'm glad all of the 12yr olds are there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So there are fewer prepubescent mouth-breathers in the other games I play.

  23. Walls, walls, floors, ramps, shotgun battle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pfft, see you in Pochinki bitches.

  24. This is a dumb article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This site is garbage. Tell me more how something irrelevant is comparable to something more irrelevant, with the only thing linked between them is " but you can find both through Google". Go to hell Beauhd.. "Slashdot, news for millennials, just everyday crap that may or may not matter because it's my first world right to have an opinion on it".

  25. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by iampiti · · Score: 1

    Not a nice thing but since it's free to play it's not as bad as if you had to pay 60 bucks upfront. If you don't like it just stop playing and you haven't lost any money just a bit of time.

  26. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think so. You don't need to pay reviewers to like this game. It has some fun and engaging mechanics and looking at the people playing it we know that a lot of players like to play. Despite starting the matches at 100 players you don't need to wait long for a game to fill up. Being F2P means it has a low entry threshold.

    But that many players give the thumbs down isn't surprising. This game favors one very distinctive form of gameplay, killing others. If you aren't the type of player that racks up kill streaks (which I am not either), most of the time you get killed quite early in the game and then you just sit and watch the game.

    If you are someone that likes to watch gameplay videos, this might be fun. But as one that has never understood the charm of watching someone else play a game that I could be playing, I think it is boring as hell. Reviewers don't play a game for that long until they write the review, the probably never got to the boring part (or they like to watch Twitch streams). That is why the different rankings of Metacritic are interesting. What professional reviewers and the public think of something is not always aligned. And it doesn't mean money has been changing hands.

  27. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by Cederic · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think you're missing the history here though. Fortnite was originally not a 'battle royale' style game at all, and many of the early supporters (and people that put money into it) feel betrayed by its switch in focus. They very much drop the review scores.

    Then there's the ongoing changes that any online game gets. A great online game may be changed by the developers to try and keep players engaged and interested, but invariably some of the original community will dislike the changes - the switch to Battle Royale being a prime example.

    While those changes may result in new players with a positive view of the game, they're also likely to result in poor reviews from players who feel aggrieved at the perceived damage to their entertainment of choice.

    It's one reason Steam now differentiates between overall and recent reviews.

  28. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    That sort of divergence between review and user ratings is usually a pretty good indication

    of business as usual in the game reviewing world.

  29. If Oxygen were a furniture store, it would rival I by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Oxygen were a furniture store, it would rival Ikea and Rooms to Go

  30. "if Fortnite were a website, it would be one of the top five in the United States."

    But as a quick Google Trends search reveals, Fortnite has become a hotter search term than Reddit.

    Er ... the one thing does not follow from the other. At all.

    Maybe everybody is just searching to see what the heck all this astroturfing is talking about?

  31. Re:If Fortnight were a website, nobody would play by beowulfcluster · · Score: 1

    If Fortnight was a book, how many libraries of congress would it rival?

  32. I say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PUBG > Fortnight.

  33. What did Pokemon Go peak at 2 years ago? by Fencepost · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure Pokemon Go had pretty huge initial adoption when it came out in the summer of 2016. Judging based on download numbers isn't all that useful, but it still had a pretty big uptake for at least a few weeks, tapering down after that.

    For that matter, never having played it it sounds like Fortnite is similar to what you find on many Minecraft servers (Factions, Survival with PvP), but built into the game and as the default instead of something you need to be shown how to get to. Basically they looked at where Minecraft had business holes (no good model for subscription or transaction revenue back to Mojang/Microsoft) and built something to capture the ongoing revenue that in the MC world goes to third parties running servers.

    --
    fencepost
    just a little off
    1. Re:What did Pokemon Go peak at 2 years ago? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure Pokemon Go had pretty huge initial adoption when it came out in the summer of 2016. Judging based on download numbers isn't all that useful, but it still had a pretty big uptake for at least a few weeks, tapering down after that.

      That's because the players started getting run over by traffic, shot at by Military Police, and arrested for trespassing in restricted areas of hospitals...

  34. Teabagging by 1_brown_mouse · · Score: 1

    It should become common experience then.

  35. Re:Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on yout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you don't actually play the game? You just watch someone else play it? I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

  36. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fortnite was originally not a 'battle royale' style game at all, and many of the early supporters (and people that put money into it) feel betrayed by its switch in focus

    And any PUBG fans who felt like the new Fortnite was ripping it off wholesale (including the PUBG devs, who made the unfortunately not well thought out statement that Fortnite is just PUBG, but free.)
    fd, I'm pretty sure at least some of the articles are a result of paid marketing.

  37. Uh, right by Krakadoom · · Score: 1

    If I were a potato, I would be a world record potato. What relevance is that to anything, since I'm (probably) not a potato. And Fortnite is not a website.

  38. Re:Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on yout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Find a better use for your time.

  39. Re:If Fortnight were a website, nobody would play by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Fortnight was a book, how many libraries of congress would it rival?

    What if.... Fortnite was a fruit?

  40. Re:Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on yout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So have we gotten to the point yet shown in South Park where we have YouTubers who make videos commenting on the other YouTuber's commentary?

  41. TH,IHAW. DFTTYW. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    and many of the early supporters (and people that put money into it) feel betrayed by its switch in focus.

    So it's a bit like what happened to Gnome?

    The solution's the same - create their own version. They could call it Forknite.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  42. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by drsquare · · Score: 1

    If it's so bad why is it so popular?

  43. Re:Metacritic scores suggest reviewers being paid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or business as usual in the entertainment world.

    FTFY

  44. Re:Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on yout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Learning games' (in general, I don't know about Fortnite, never play it) mechanics, strategies, etc on highly competitive games e.g. Starcraft II takes a lot of time. While watching pro tournaments doesn't take a lot of time, but still gives you entertainment values.

    Do you also play football (err.. handball I mean), AC?

  45. Re:Watching "Pack A Puncher" play Fortnite on yout by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    Find a better use for your time.

    Watching may have a different meaning to you and I.

    He streams a lot so have him playing all the time - in the backgound. I'm used to a tv playing while computing, but the commercials
    over free tv (antenna) are obnoxious enough to find an alternative. But something has to be on TV for ambience.

    But I've gathered enough tricks from him to help my son play some decent games. So it's been working pretty well.