It turns out that it's not necessarily the game itself that makes PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds so popular, but the fact that it implements the battle royale game type so well. Otherwise how could Fortnite, ostensibly the same game but free to play and with building elements and a cutesy art style, do so well right alongside it? The Epic Games production recently hit a massive milestone of its own, with more than two million players battling it out at one time.
Admittedly, not all of those players are likely to be playing the Battle Royale game mode. The difference with Fortnite is that it was originally a cooperative, exploration, building, shooter with skin-stretched undead to fight off against. It was a blend of wave-shooter and open sandbox survival title, which had some middling success when first released after many years in development. That mode still exists, so some are undoubtedly still playing it, though nowhere near as many as the much more popular Battle Royale mode.
The numbers we're basing this latest milestone on come straight from Epic itself, so as PCGamer points out, we have to take them with a slight pinch of salt. They aren't publicly verifiable like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' Steam stats are.
But even if Epic is fudging the numbers a little, hitting this kind of player count just four months after the release of the game mode is staggering and shows that Epic is on to a true winner with its game. That's something it's lacked in recent years and is partially why it switched to free to play models for its games, like the still-in-development Unreal Tournament reboot.
Epic will continue to update and improve Fortnite's Battle Royale mode in the future, with upcoming patches set to add new locations to the expansive map, as well as a series of mine-shafts for close-quarters combat.
