An empty lobby stares at you from the screen. All of your friends were online months ago, one even disappearing for a year or two. You read the final messages from your friends online and are hit with a wave of emotions. You remember every single battle you fought with your friends, talking trash along the way. Thousands of people around the world experienced this, realizing that Fortnite was finally dying. The game that we all used to know and love was falling apart.
Epic Games is ruining Fortnite. Fortnite is slowly deteriorating its fan base. With the addition of Chapter 5, Season 1, people began
complaining about the game being overly complicated and chaotic, loss of the “arcade” feel, disliked weapon dynamics, and a realistic movement system that was considered “clunky” and “sluggish”. Epic Games never bothered to take these complaints into consideration. The game to this day remains the same and requires patience and skill to adjust to. Many people consider Epic Games’ attitude to be annoying and disrespectful to the fan base and game.
Seasons that were universally hated included Chapter 5(The Wrecked), Chapter 2, Season 6(Primal), and finally Chapter 3, Season 4(Chrome). These all had separate themes that made the game difficult to understand or comprehend. The Wrecked was the first to introduce vehicle customization, which made vehicles a lot more powerful and nearly impossible to deal with in foot combat. Competitive players didn’t have ways to deal with this and often complained about there being no counters to the invincible “tanks.”
Google Trends provides the information that over 100 people a day search up “Why Fortnite is dying.” Evan, from the TenEighty Magazine quote, says, “to put the math degree to use somehow, that Fortnite has seen a significant decline in popularity over the past 6 months. According to Adarsh Illendula and Artus Chang, two 7th graders at Rio Norte Junior High, they both find that the cosmetics and item shop have gone over the rails. “The cosmetics seem to be overpriced,” said Adarsh. Artus considers the item shop to be overrated, as they slowly bring back OG skins, they lose value and rarity.
Streamers such as Ninja, SypherPK, Myth, Tfue, and Mongraal are all slowly burning out or finding themselves completely quitting. Streamers and even casual players often find themselves facing visual bugs, glitches that destroy the game, and going under the map. Players are slowly burning out due to cheaters, exploiters, and people who don’t participate in the matches.
In conclusion, the game still has a chance to be revived. But, it needs the care and attention it was given when it was first released back in 2017. The game that we loved back in the day was dying and desperately in need of help. The game took a big hit in popularity.
