How Many People Play Fortnite? Is Chapter 5 Epic or Dying?

Fortnite is far and away one of the biggest hits in video gaming, ever. Jumping into Fortnite for the first time today, you’re looking at a complete metaverse that encompasses so many modes and different ways to play, all for free. Even the most popular games don’t last forever though. How many people play Fortnite in 2024?

Compared to previous Chapters, updates in Chapter 4 and beyond have given us live information on the player count. Gone are estimates and dodgy numbers claiming to be using Fortnite’s API but suggesting bizarre figures. We now know the Fortnite player count, exactly. The game has even hit new record peaks pretty regularly with the OG Fortnite player count getting so high! Then there’s the new Lego Fortnite player count to consider.

If you’re wondering how popular the biggest Battle Royale is in 2024, this is how many people play Fortnite Chapter 5.

We get actual live numbers for the Fortnite player count. That’s one that’s completely separated from the very specific achievements Epic has previously released. Like over 300 million accounts being active.

In terms of raw live players, we now have an actual counter. In-game, Epic shows “X number of players currently live”. This is supposed to be a live reflection of the active player count at the moment. The raw number of people on each of the Fortnite servers playing the game modes.

Minute to minute, hour to hour, it’s a perfectly accurate assessment of the game’s player base. What about the peaks though? What’s the record?

Since Fortnite Zero Build was introduced, it’s been a bit controversial with some of the core audience. Some players think it’s split the player base, or at least given Battle Royale a bit of a different vibe. A lot of major content creators pop up in Zero Build cups and stick to that mode, but what about the general player base?

According to Fortnite’s in-game counter, Battle Royale still reigns supreme! For the most part, Battle Royale is pretty consistently ahead by about 50%. It’s quite a bit more popular.

Fortnite has become a platform for all sorts of games. There’s the standard creative mode which has long attracted more divisive experiences and split the player base. Beyond that though, we’ve got the recent Unreal Engine for Fortnite.

This new feature lets people make game experiences as diverse as you could imagine and host them right in Fortnite. Now we’ve also got Rocket Racing and even Fortnite Lego too. The player base is much more spread out, even if it’s quite a bit higher.

How does the Fortnite player count compare to its own past? Has Fortnite actually passed its peak and started declining? Far from it, Chapter 5 has even past the OG Fortnite player count.

Fortnite’s biggest peak in simultaneous players has been broken repeatedly very recently. Since OG launched, then the Chapter 5 update, and then the Lego game mode, things just went up and up and up.

We might see more fluctuations in the future for the Fortnite player count. It could go even higher as more game modes like Fall Guys are introduced. Although, it’s possible Epic won’t keep up the momentum on this record-breaking pattern forever.

How many people play Fortnite day to day is one thing, but the absolute peak for Fortnite is just as interesting. The game’s biggest moment for consecutive players for quite a while was the Fortnite live events. The Big Bang event did break a record too, but since then we’ve seen even bigger peaks get set.

At the peak of how many people play Fortnite daily, it may have been in the launch of Chapter 5 when 6.6 million played in a day. This came only days after the last peak, the OG Fortnite player count and the Big Bang Event. Over 40 million played in a day recently.

Fortnite might well top these numbers again soon! Especially if the Lego Fortnite player count stays so high. However, there are loads of factors which could lead to things cooling off again.

Fortnite’s player count for quite a while looked like it had topped out. Yet over the close of 2023, we saw tons of Fortnite news about the game hitting player peaks. Why has the game kept heading upward like this?

The simplest answer on the surface is that Epic’s major end of events over the end of last year led to a lot of interest. Fortnite OG coming back was big. This was the original build of the game. Everyone who wanted to recapture Chapter 1 was back. So were all the players who wanted to try it out. This was one of those limited-time events that just grew and grew. However, it is coming back soon which could lead to even more players trying it out.

After Fortnite OG, Epic launched new game modes which really expanded Fortnite. Those who wanted a Minecraft game, a Lego game, or a racing game had a reason to download the title. Pair it with being available everywhere, like Fortnite on Nintendo Switch or on mobile streaming, and it’s no wonder there are loads of players here. Fortnite is basically the most popular it has ever been in Chapter 5.