Fortnite On Nintendo Switch Hits 11 Million Downloads

You're probably sick and tired of hearing about how popular Fortnite is, and how much money Epic Games is raking in thanks to its free-to-play Battle Royale spin-off. But there's a good chance one Fortnite-related statistic can still shock you, and it has to do with how many Nintendo Switch consoles have downloaded the game since June.

It's a lot.

According to Nintendo (by way of Gamasutra), Fortnite is installed on approximately 11 million Nintendo Switch consoles. Just to put things into perspective, Nintendo Switch sales are currently sitting at around 22 million. That means almost half of all the Switches out in the wild have Fortnite downloaded, which is amazing all on its own.

But again, Fortnite only hit the system in June. So those 11 million downloads happened in the span of about four months. Four months! That's just ridiculous.

Fortnite is free, so it's far easier to get a hold of than a $60 retail release. But it's still pretty surprising to see it holding its own against some of the Nintendo Switch's biggest games. GameSpot reports that Super Mario Odyssey, for instance, sold 12.71 million units. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 11.71 million units. And The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold 10.28 million. Fortnite is right up there with all of Nintendo's juggernauts in terms of Switch attach rate. And it came months after, and in some cases, over a year after a few of those titles.

Nintendo has obviously been paying attention to all of the Fortnite love on Switch. The company recently started offering a Nintendo Switch Fortnite bundle that includes exclusive skins and some of the game's currency, called V-Bucks.

And Nintendo was very careful not to step on Fortnite when its paid online service, Nintendo Switch Online, launched earlier this fall. While other retail games require the service for online play, Fortnite — because it is a free download — does not.