There’s a new thinkpiece out on how Fortnite happened and what it all means every week lately, but SuperData’s latest might be a comfort to the rest of the industry. Analyst Bethany Lyons argues that Fortnite’s wild success isn’t coming at the expense of all other games.
“Fortnite Battle Royale has grown without disrupting the bottom line or player base of a surprising number of free-to-play games. For example, the title has increased its console revenue in May at a rate of 12% month-over-month, while other free-to-play console games stayed more or less consistent,” she writes.
So that’s revenue. What about users? Other games are still growing, some even faster than Fortnite, she says, particularly in the free-to-play console market, which is encouraging competitors to focus there. And streaming? Seems hours-watched on Twitch for the big games have stayed fairly even too as Fortnite has taken off.
On the other land, Lyons admits, League of Legends has been hit hard, while curiously games like Dota 2 have not: “The player base of League of Legends is taking a big hit. The game has been bleeding users since November of last year, just two months after Fortnite Battle Royale was released.” PUBG is definitely suffering too, having lost 5M players since February and watching its revenue fall from $91M to $33 over the course of the past spring.
The takeaway? Fortnite isn’t a rising tide lifting all boats, but it sure is lifting some of them.
