'Fortnite' Doomsday Event Attracted Staggering Number Of Players In Just 30 Minutes

Don't let anyone try and tell you that Fortnite is a "dead game," because it quite clearly isn't. The hype surrounding last night's transition between Chapter 2: Season 2 and Season 3 of the battle royale was so intense that the servers were packed a full 30 minutes before the Season 2 finale event kicked off.

'The Device' event saw players gather in Fortnite to witness some pretty gnarly stuff. The whole thing culminated in the appearance of a giant orb that fired electrical energy all over the map, laying down the groundwork for Season 3 of Chapter 2. I haven't played Fortnite in months, so I have no idea what the heck was happening... but people seemed into it, and it's clear that there's a larger narrative at play.

Epic Games

Fortnite has become famous for ending its seasons with massive events, of course. That's probably why millions of players flocked to the game to view the event with their own eyes, prompting Epic to warn players that servers were full before the damn thing had even started. Anyone else interested in watching live would have to do so via YouTube or Twitch, rather than in-game.

All told, the event attracted an astounding 12 million in-game. Another 8.4 million watched along on YouTube and Twitch. While a ton of players were obviously a little upset they couldn't get into the game itself to experience the fun firsthand, Epic took to Twitter to promise that it's improving systems so that it accommodate more players for these large-scale events.

Epic also pledged to continue pushing "the edge of what live events can be", which is an entirely thrilling prospect. Fortnite has already held a number of massive in-game concerts including the likes of Travis Scott and Deadmau5, both of which attracted a huge number of virtual attendees.

There are also plans to screen an entire Christopher Nolan film at some point later this summer, which should be great fun. As the world continues to work to find a "new normal" in the midst of all this chaos, getting together on Fortnite to watch movies, attend concerts, and hang out isn't such a bad idea at all.

Topics: epic games, Fortnite, Battle Royale