Epic Games, an American video game development company, released the game Fortnite in July of 2017, but Fortnite has just recently become the center of the gaming community after the Battle Royale version of the game was announced free to consumers in 2018. Now, teenagers everywhere are obsessing over the new video game.

Senior at Hopkinton High School, Shane Cooney, commented on what playing Fortnite entails.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is basically a survival game where 100 online people are put into one arena where their characters fight until only one remains,” said senior Shane Cooney. “The last person standing knows they have won once their screen reads Victory Royale.”

“You can fight by building forts out of materials [such as wood, metal, and brick] that you collect along the way and by using the many guns you can find from around the arena,” described Cooney. “It is like the movie “Hunger Games” and the two video games Call of Duty and Minecraft all mixed into one.”

An outsider to the Fortnite: Battle Royale gaming community may wonder why this game is so popular.

“I think that so many people are starting to play “Fortnite” so much because it is free. Usually, people are hesitant to get a game because you have to go out and buy it,” said sophomore Tommy Hamblet. “This is not the case with Fortnite: Battle Royale. You can download it onto your Xbox or computer for free, and because it is free, all of your friends have it too.”

“It becomes so fun and makes you want to keep playing because you can play with all of your friends opposed to just yourself or a select few friends,” said Hamblet. “I don’t think that there would be so many people playing the game if we had to buy it like all of the other games.”

It could come down to money. One reason other video games have not attracted as much attention as Fortnite: Battle Royale is accessibility.

Any person with a gaming console or computer can get Fortnite: Battle Royale by downloading it for free. They do not need to worry about money or going to a store to pick the game up.

This could be one of the reasons Fortnite: Battle Royale has, attracted over 45 million players globally, according to pcgamesn.com.

“I first played Fortnite: Battle Royale at my friend’s house, and I loved it. As soon as I got home I downloaded it onto my Xbox because it was fun and free,” said senior Griffin Zack. “If I was not in the hockey season, it is safe to say I would be playing for hours every day.”

“I have seen a lot of my friends lives become dictated by “Fortnite”. Sometimes when I ask to hang out with them they say, “No,” because all they want to do is play Fortnite. One of my friends even admitted that his grade in math has dropped four points because he is playing “Fortnite” rather than studying,” said Zack.

So, how long will Fortnite: Battle Royale continue to have millions of online players every day? The answer is unclear. But, for now, Epic Games has earned a Victory Royale for their newest game.