It was reported that over 10 million players participated in the virtual concert by EDM producer Marshmello. The event broke the previous record of 8.3 million concurrent players which was set by the in-game butterfly event dated back in November last year. Epic Games further stated that the game has seen its best non-event day on February 16th, with a record of 7.6 million concurrent players. So it would seem that these types of events surely help Epic Game gains a huge amount of concurrent players.
Epic Game has made many efforts to raise the game’s popularity, for example, the localization of the game that made the game available on the mobile platform in August the previous year, and on Nintendo Switch later in June. Moreover, the in-game butterfly event proved to do the same as mentioned above. The Marshmello’s concert proved that Epic Game’s developers paid much concern to their players’ desires, and how they are willing to think outside of the box of conventional gaming is what contributes to the huge leap in the players.
After the concert, Marshmello, whose real name is Christopher Comstock, stated in a Tweet that they have made history that day with millions of players in attendance. It seems that the event was benefited from both Epic Games and the famous EDM producer, so we could expect more events like this from Epic Games later on.
It is also an important fact that 10.7 million participants only tuned in from the game itself. There were also viewers who watched the concert from live streams as well. Also, reports from YouTube shows that the concert’s recap hit approximately 27 million views. So adding these two factors than the actual participants of the event would be much higher.
The rise in players was a good sign for Epic Games’ Fortnite, although there are many competitors rising in the Battle Royale genre. Fortnite is holding its ground as an extremely popular game. The game will definitely grow larger in popularity as it is heading to its eighth season the following week.