Fortnite Is the Last-Man-Standing in Best Brands of 2018

In the melee of brand marketing, 2018 saw plenty of action. Go figure that one of this year’s heavy hitters used the battle royale framework to be one of 2018’s best. Boasting 200 million players worldwide, Epic Games’ Fortnite was not only one of the biggest games of the year—but one of the biggest brands too. Here’s how:

• The most talked about game on Twitter (6.43 million followers and counting) took the online world by storm when it was released in September 2017 and it never let up once the calendars flipped.
• While it wasn’t the first game to use the battle royale play model, what made Fortnite a $1 billion brand was its distribution. It was free! There was no cost to play and it could be played on any platform (Windows or Mac computers, iOS or Android devices, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One or Nintendo Switch).
• The game required no disc. Exclusively digital experience.
• Its cartoonish violence was deemed kid friendly (and kid obsessive). Furthermore, player’s avatars danced and wore funky outfits (purchased via in-game money) whenever they won a match, which made the game more entertaining.
• Game play grabbed attention on online streaming sites such as Twitch, which registered 104 million hours of Fortnite viewing in September 2018 alone!
• Unlike most games that take years of development, Fortnite provided fast, regular updates in addition to in-game offerings (purchasable items, season passes) that unlocked exclusive content.

2019 will tell if Fortnite will still reign supreme in the gaming and branding world like it did in 2018. Regardless, it has already signaled a massive sea change in its market.