Epic Games launched the Battle Royale mode for Fortnite in September 2017, and it became an instant success. The free-to-play game has continued to be popular but this weekend, it reached a new player-level record thanks in part to a decision to go back to the game’s past.
On Friday, Epic updated Fortnite with its Chapter 4 Season OG content. It allowed current players to play in the original map that was released in the first version of the Battle Royale mode. That throwback likely caused a lot of players who perhaps have left the game to come back for some nostalgic fun.
It apparently worked extremely well, as Epic posted word on the official Fortnite X (formerly Twitter) account that Saturday, November 4, the game had reached a new one-day player high number of over 44.7 million, along with logging in 102 million play hours for that day as well.
In addition, the unofficial site Fortnite.GG claims that the game reached its highest concurrent player count in its history on Saturday as well, with 6,172,468 players online at once at one point in the game.
The Season OG update is not just about bringing back the first Fortnite map. Epic Games will also add some of the game’s older weapons, items, and drivable vehicles during the season, as well, with new content updates happening every week for the next few weeks.
The truth is that Epic Games needed some good news right about now. A few weeks ago, the company announced a mass layoff that affected 16 percent of its total workforce, or over 800 of its employees.
In addition, Epic had to settle with the US Federal Trade Commission, paying up to $540 million in December 2022 in fines and refunds for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).