Will Fortnite be one of the next esports?

With Fortnite blowing up in phenomenal ways in recent months, many people have wondered whether the game is on its way to becoming one of the next esports titles.

It’s completely possible that Fortnite could end up becoming an esports title, but there are a number of things that must happen before this is possible. Below, I want to discuss these things and how they are progressing in the Fortnite community.

With all esports games, there are 4 major questions that must be answered. Here’s a look at the questions.

• Is the game competitive enough to be an esport?
• Will the game get viewership during competitive events?
• Will companies, brands, and organizations be willing to invest in the esport?
• Will the developers want to push for esports in their game?

Without these four things, a game will struggle to create a healthy esports scene. Below, we’ve looked at the answers for each of these questions.

Are there competitive gameplay elements in Fortnite?

Many people consider Fortnite to be a casual game, especially when compared to PUBG, but there’s a very big skill curve in Fortnite. High level gameplay has more of a focus on building and out-building other players.

You have to be very skilled to be able to build quickly, and you must also be able to think fast enough to make the right building decisions. It’s hard to comprehend unless you’ve watched high-skilled players like Ninja or Myth playing the game and using the building mechanics.

Will Fortnite esports get viewership?

Fortnite is the most popular game on live streaming platforms like Twitch.TV and YouTube, so the viewership is there at least for a casual audience. I personally think that the high viewer count for Fortnite is a good indication that there will also be good viewership for competitive events and tournaments streamed online.

In fact, Fortnite could easily become one of the most watched esports games, especially if the tournament organizers can get some big names to play and take part in tournaments.

Will there be investors?

Many existing esports organizations are already investing, so that’s a good start.

Fortnite has been an extremely profitable venture for Epic Games – they are bringing in millions from microtransactions for cosmetics. Dozens of streamers are also making six figure and seven figure incomes streaming Fortnite live, so the money is absolutely there.

Investing in Fortnite in any way right now seems like a smart move, but it will depend on what Epic Games do to preserve the longevity of the game.

Do the Fortnite developers want to push for Esports?

Epic Games has made competitive games before – think Unreal Tournament. But it’s clear from the get-go that Fortnite: Battle Royale was designed as a casual experience.

That doesn’t mean Epic Games can’t venture into esports, however. Even if Epic Games don’t want to host their own tournaments, an esports scene in Fortnite can still exist. Epic Games simply needs to allow custom servers and think about game balancing and the rest is history.

Summary

In summary, Fortnite could quite easily become the next big esport game. Ultimately, only time will tell how things work out.

Comments are closed.