Fortnite just had its “biggest day” ever thanks to Fortnite OG, with over 44.7 million players jumping into the game and playing for a combined total of over 102 million hours.
Fortnite announced the news on X/Twitter, saying, “Way to start things off with a big bang.”
“We’re blown away by the response to #FortniteOG,” Fortnite’s X account continued. “Yesterday was the biggest day in Fortnite’s history with over 44.7 MILLION players jumping in and 102 MILLION hours of play.”
According to the unofficial but reliable stat website Fortnite.GG, Fortnite also had its highest concurrent player count ever yesterday, November 4, with 6,172,463 players battle royaling at once.
For those unfamiliar, Fortnite Chapter 4 Season OG sends players to Fortnite’s original island and will treat players to a “different phase of Battle Royale’s past, starting with Chapter 1 Season 5.” Yes, this means “Shopping Carts, ATKs, the Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, and more.”
Don’t worry, though, as sprinting and mantling will remain for this return trip to the island.
Fortnite OG’s success, however, does arrive following the news that Epic Games would be laying off 830 employees, or 16% of its workforce.
“For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators,” Sweeny said in an internal memo. “I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.
“While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite Battle Royale took off and began funding our expansion. Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.”
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
