The Creators Of Fortnite Made $3 Billion In Profit In 2018, Much More Than Infosys

If there's one thing we've learned from the success of PUBG this year, it's that people really like Hunger Games-style battle royale games right now. But there's one title doing even better than PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and that's the ever-present Fortnite.

The game has been so successful that Epic Games, its developer, has posted an incredible $3 billion in profits for 2018. That's a couple of hundred thousand dollars more than Google made on all its hardware this year, and $500,000 more than Infosys' entire profit margin for 2018.

And all of this despite the fact that Fortnite is completely free to play.

That's right, playing the full game doesn't cost you anything, and there are no hidden charges or locked content. Instead, their business model works on selling aesthetic virtual items for their characters. Again, none of these purchases give you an advantage in the game in any way, so the user base is satisfied by the fairness of the game. All it does is let you exhibit your personal style in-game.

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Some of these are purchased individually, and others by unlocking content through the $10 seasonal Battle Pass. But it's something most of the game's 125 million odd players have spent real money on, whether for the PC, consoles, or smartphones.

So why is Fortnite so successful?, Well, for one thing it's fun. It combines battle royale attempts of the kind present in games like PUBG, with harvesting and building elements perfected in survival games like Minecraft. More than that though, the game has always exhibited a more fun, laid back nature than its competitors. This has been central to its success among teenagers and younger kids.

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Moreover, its available costumes, emotes, and dances pull liberally from pop and meme culture, create a connect that's difficult from someone not glued to social media to understand. And, to state again, it started out as free whereas PUBG made the move to free-to-play only later. Hence the influx of kids that made it popular in its infancy.

The question of whether it can maintain that death grip on the gaming scene remains to be scene. After all, Fortnite has to keep innovating to keep their lead, whereas competitors only have to innovate more than they are now. Will the game still be a popular hit by the end of 2019? No one can say for sure.