Fortnite: Battle Royale Reaches Over One Million Players in First 24 Hours

Ryan Meitzler September 27, 2017 1:02 PM EST

In just 24 hours, the free-to-play Fortnite: Battle Royale mode has already drawn over one million players across consoles and PC players.

The fort-building survival game Fortnite dipped its toes into the waters of “battle royale” gameplay a la PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds this week with the release of its free-to-play Fortnite: Battle Royale mode, with the new feature already drawing a huge number of players since release.

In a tweet from the game’s official Twitter account, Epic Games has revealed that over one million players have dived off the Battle Bus into Fortnite: Battle Royale in the mode’s first 24 hours on consoles and PC, as the free-to-play mode has surely captured many people looking for “battle royale” experiences like the massively popular PUBG, which crossed over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam this week.

So far, it seems like Fortnite: Battle Royale is already drawing a big playerbase, despite some of the recent controversy around the mode from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer Bluehole Studio, who commented on the mode’s likeness to the gameplay of PUBG, which Epic Games has openly cited as inspiration for the game mode. Whether or not Bluehole will take further action (legal or otherwise) against Epic Games is unclear, at this time.

Fortnite is available in Early Access for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while its “Battle Royale” mode is available now as a free-to-play experience on all platforms.

Over 1 million players have partied on the Battle Bus during the first day of Battle Royale! Thank you and party on! 🙌🎉🚍 pic.twitter.com/Tdqnk8YClb — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 27, 2017