Who Owns Fortnite?

Fortnite's development began in the early 2010s as an internal project at Epic Games exploring a cooperative survival game concept. The game was publicly announced at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards and entered a prolonged development cycle as Epic Games worked through significant changes to the game's design and business model. The original concept, which became "Fortnite: Save the World," was a cooperative player-versus-environment survival game in which teams of up to four players defended bases against waves of zombie-like creatures called Husks. This mode entered paid early access on July 25, 2017, after years of development.

The transformative moment in Fortnite's history came in September 2017, when Epic Games observed the explosive growth of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), a battle royale game that had launched in early access in March 2017 and was rapidly accumulating millions of players. Epic Games' development team, led by Darren Sugg, built a battle royale mode for Fortnite in approximately two months by adapting the game's existing building mechanics and art style to the battle royale format. "Fortnite Battle Royale" launched as a free-to-play mode on September 26, 2017, and its growth was immediate and extraordinary.

Within weeks of the Battle Royale launch, Fortnite was attracting millions of daily players. By January 2018, the game had 45 million registered players. By March 2018, it had 78 million monthly players. The game's free-to-play model, which generated revenue through optional cosmetic purchases rather than pay-to-win mechanics, proved highly effective at maximizing the addressable player base while maintaining a fair competitive environment. The Battle Pass system, introduced in Season 2 in December 2017, offered players a tiered set of cosmetic rewards for completing in-game challenges, providing a recurring subscription-like revenue stream that became a model widely copied across the gaming industry.

Fortnite's cultural impact extended far beyond gaming. The game's distinctive building mechanic, which allowed players to construct structures during combat, created a skill ceiling that attracted competitive players and streamers. Fortnite dances, particularly the "Floss" and "Orange Justice," became viral phenomena in mainstream culture. The game attracted celebrity players including Drake, Travis Scott, and numerous professional athletes, generating mainstream media coverage that amplified its reach beyond the traditional gaming audience. In February 2018, a Fortnite stream featuring Drake, Travis Scott, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster broke the Twitch concurrent viewership record with approximately 628,000 simultaneous viewers.

Epic Games pioneered the live event model for video games through Fortnite. In-game events including the "Marshmello Concert" in February 2019 (attended by approximately 10 million concurrent players), the "Travis Scott Astronomical" concert in April 2020 (attended by approximately 12.3 million concurrent players), and the "Big Bang" event in December 2023 (which set a peak of 44.7 million concurrent players) demonstrated that Fortnite had evolved from a game into a social platform and entertainment venue.

The game underwent a significant evolution in 2019 with the introduction of Fortnite Creative mode, which allowed players to build custom islands and game modes, and in 2023 with the launch of Fortnite UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite), which gave creators access to Unreal Engine tools to build experiences within Fortnite. This expansion toward a user-generated content platform positioned Fortnite as a potential metaverse infrastructure, with Epic Games partnering with major brands including LEGO (LEGO Fortnite, launched December 2023), Rocket League, and Fall Guys to create distinct game modes within the Fortnite ecosystem.

Epic Games' legal battles with Apple and Google over app store policies, which began in August 2020 when Epic deliberately violated both companies' payment policies to trigger litigation, resulted in Fortnite being removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The Apple litigation concluded in 2021 with a ruling largely in Apple's favor, though Epic won a limited injunction requiring Apple to allow developers to link to external payment methods. Fortnite returned to iOS in the European Union in 2024 following Digital Markets Act requirements, and Epic launched its own mobile game store in the EU and the United States in 2024.