Fortnite Battle Royale
The idea for "Fortnite Battle Royale" arose following the release of the similar battle royale game "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", which saw numerous player count records broken throughout 2017. Seeing its rapid growth and commercial success, Epic Games saw the opportunity to create a battle royale mode of their own. Originally released as part of the paid "Fortnite" game, Epic spun out a dedicated version of the game offered as free-to-play funded by microtransactions, sharing in-game currency with the main "Fortnite" game, allowing players to buy or earn cosmetic items to customize their character, as well as completing challenges through a battle pass to earn additional rewards. , the game has seen over 200 million players, and has been estimated to have earned in microtransactions. "Fortnite Battle Royale" has become a cultural phenomenon, with streams of the game achieving record-high viewerships, and with several high-profile celebrities stating their appreciation of the game.
Fortnite Battle Royale
In October 2018, Epic launched its "Support a Creator" program for "Fortnite". Individual players could designate one of several popular "Fortnite" streamers, selected by Epic via an application process, to support via the game client. That create would then earn money based on how many V-bucks their supporters spent within the game, at a rate of for every 10,000 V-Bucks (roughly, 5% of the monetary value). Though initially planned as a limited time event, Epic found by December 2018 that millions of "Fortnite" players were using the promotion to support more than 10,000 streamers, and since have made it a permanent option for "Fortnite" and hoping this would help some creators go full-time, and plans to extend this program to other games offered via the Epic Games Store, including "Tom Clancy's The Division 2".