Throughout the school year thus far, Fortnite has become the latest craze in the video game industry. Many are questioning the sudden resurgence of this game. Fortnite has always been considered one of the top leaders in the world of video games. With an average of 239 million monthly players, it has been one of the most played video games of all time.
Since October 2017, Fortnite has been gaining immense popularity due to its storyline and iconic collectables within the game, divided into “seasons.” Around 2018-2019, it was considered one of the best, most iconic games of all time by many. This recognition was acquired due to the originality of seasons, making the game’s popularity skyrocket. However, the quality of Fortnite has slowly been declining, even with the influx of new players. The game has not been at the same level of enjoyment status since its peak. Fortnite player Luca Furer ’26 states, “I started playing during season 4, which was in 2018, and I stopped playing often around 2020. I occasionally played after 2020, but the game was never the same as in season 4.” Furer is just one of many LM students that have returned to playing Fortnite after not playing for years. Recently, on November 3, 2023, Fortnite had one of its biggest influxes of players in its history. In fact, Fortnite had the most users playing at the same time on November 3, at a whopping total of 44.7 million, according to Epic Games. This accumulation of players occurred because of an update that brought the majority of the game’s features back from their 2018-2019 model. Additionally, there were so many people playing at once on November 3 that there wasn’t enough space on Fortnite’s servers to maintain the massive influx. This resulted in many players being forced to wait in a queue until there was room on their servers. To put that in perspective, queues have been rarely used on Fortnite servers since the game’s creation about six years ago.
Another Fortnite user, Grayson Lynagh ’26, explains,“The vibes of the recent update felt exactly the same as the early seasons of Fortnite. My friends and I couldn’t stop playing; it was so nostalgic.” Many players felt the same way about the update, which resulted in November 3 having a gross total of 102 million hours of play.
A change included in the updates was Fortnite reverting the game’s map, in-game objects, and vehicles to the early-season version, which resulted in many returning players experiencing nostalgic feelings towards playing Fortnite. Shortly after the update, many social media trends were formed around Fortnite, regarding the return of many players that hadn’t played since the older seasons. An example of one of the trends was people posting when they won a game of Fortnite on their Snapchat. The phrase “Victory Royale” dominated the stories on many Snapchat feeds, not just in school but nationally.
Even though these updates were groundbreaking and inspired former players to come back, it was sadly removed on December 2, lasting a total of 29 days. Even with its short lived duration, it remains one of the most influential updates in Fortnite history, influencing millions of people to return to playing Fortnite. This update was a nostalgic blast from the past for many LM students.
