These Are The Games That May Destroy Fortnite

There's no question that Epic Games' Fortnite is a video game phenomenon, and in the time since it launched, the game's popularity has only continued to grow. In November 2018, Fortnite shattered its concurrent player record, with 8.3 million people playing the game at one time, doubling the game's previous concurrent record of 3.4 million the previous February.

The only thing more staggering than Fortnite's player count is the amount of money its made for the studio previously best known for Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, not to mention the Unreal Engine, an industry standard. By July 2018, Fortnite had raked in $1 billion in in-game purchases. Yeah, that's $1 billion in less than a year in release.

Epic has continued to add things to the game in the weeks and months since its initial launch, from new sections of the map and Marvel tie-ins to football gear and carts, ensuring that Fortnite continues to feel fresh. With such massive success and continuous updates, will Fortnite ever fade away? More importantly, what will be the game to replace it?

While it's a longshot, there are a few new and upcoming titles that could fill the void if Fortnite were ever to fall ...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's excellent take on battle royale, Blackout, is already starting to eat PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' lunch and could very well replace it as the go-to realistic battle royale experience. Could Blackout also replace Fortnite and become the king of the genre?

In terms of sales, Call of Duty definitely gives Fortnite a run for its money, raking in over $500 million in three days back in October 2018. While Call of Duty games bring in millions of dollars for Activision each year, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the notable success of that year's installment has to do with the title's focus on multiplayer gameplay, particularly Blackout, which offers the level of polish that you've come to expect from a AAA budget while staying true (and even improving on) what players love about battle royale titles like PUBG.

The quality of the experience alone may continue to bring in fans of the genre, as well as fans who love to watch their favorite streamers playing the game. But more so than that, Call of Duty is an established brand on consoles with lots of money behind it to continue to make Blackout better.

Part of Fortnite's success has to do with the fact that it's available on pretty much every current gaming platform, including mobile. Blackout is doing quite well on consoles, and if Activision could figure out how to bring it to more casual mobile players, it could seriously pose a threat to Fortnite.

In November 2018, Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham revealed the studio is working on multiple mobile games "across all of our IPs." While many hardcore fans were outraged by the reveal of Diablo Immortal, a new mobile entry in the series set between Diablo 2 and 3, mobile may be just the ticket if the company wishes to reach a more mainstream, casual audience that isn't necessarily prone to jumping into Diablo on PC or consoles.

As Adham explained during a press conference (via PC Gamer), Blizzard is pursuing a mobile Diablo in order to reach "a much broader audience around the world." In other words, people who play games on their smartphones. It makes sense: mobile is the most accessible platform on the market. After all, most people have cell phones.

Releasing games for mobile guarantees that Blizzard's premier action-RPG will be served to more people than ever before. That's something Epic Games knew well when it decided to make Fortnite: Battle Royale available on virtually every current-gen platform (and for free, mind you), including mobile. Reaching a wider audience of players is a no-brainer for Blizzard, especially since so many of its titles already emphasize online multiplayer.

Diablo Immortal is a wise first experiment into mobile versions of Blizzard's list of IP, and if it can stick the landing with an easy-to-pick-up arcade-y hack-and-slash experience, it could find a brand new audience and even topple Fortnite as the world's preferred mobile title.

Five years since its initial release, Grand Theft Auto 5 is still one of the best-selling games on the market. How is this possible? The game's continued sales success is in large part due to GTA Online, the game's online multiplayer component, which has prolonged the life of this title beyond what anyone in the industry could have imagined. Half a decade later, Rockstar is still releasing new updates for GTA Online, keeping its dedicated player base busy with all kinds of heists and other shenanigans.

It's really no surprise then that Rockstar is launching Red Dead Online, a multiplayer mode set in the Old West of Red Dead Redemption 2, which is itself a major success, with $725 million in sales in just three days. With Red Dead Online, Rockstar undoubtedly hopes to prolong the life of its latest title way beyond the finite experience offered by its single-player story mode.

Could Red Dead Redemption 2's massive success mean that Red Dead Online has a real chance to supplant Fortnite as the most popular multiplayer game in the world? It certainly can't hurt.

Fallout is one of the greatest video game franchises of all time for its large, imaginative settings, diverse characters, and epic storytelling that explores themes of hope, love, and loss after the end of the world. But for all of its single-player role-playing genius, there's always been something missing from Fallout: a multiplayer component that allows players from around the world to explore, fight, and rebuild together. That changes with Fallout 76, an online multiplayer RPG that finally allows players to team up and adventure through the Wasteland.

With an emphasis on building/crafting, survival gameplay, and PvP, some are wondering if Fallout 76 might have what it takes to kick Fortnite off its throne. While it's ultimately a bit more complex than what Fortnite has to offer, it's impossible to notice the similarities between both games, and with what will undoubtedly be a hefty mod scene, who knows how Fallout 76 will be reshaped to fulfill the needs of players down the line (let's not forget that the battle royale genre itself came from mods). Whatever Fallout 76 ultimately becomes, it could be the next big thing for multiplayer gaming.

While BioWare has developed online games in the past, including the ongoing Star Wars: The Old Republic, Anthem is still a notable departure for the famed studio. The new game is seemingly most similar to shared-world loot shooters such as Destiny, Warframe, and The Division, with an emphasis on cooperative multiplayer and live services (but don't worry, BioWare is also touting an epic story).

Although Anthem isn't quite revolutionary, a new BioWare title should be treated like an event. The studio that brought you Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age is releasing a new game in 2019 and that's a big deal. It remains to be seen exactly what kind of impact the game will make, but with Anthem's focus on online multiplayer shooter gameplay, BioWare is going after an audience it's never really developed games for before. If BioWare's latest turns out to be something special, the company could have a major hit on its hands, one that could topple Fortnite in part because of the pedigree of this legendary studio.

While it's true that we don't know much official information about Halo Infinite, we can surmise a few things from the Slipspace Engine demo video revealed at E3 2018. The video shows UNSC Marines and the Master Chief journeying on a new Halo installation full of wildlife and various terrains to drive your Warthog through.

Halo Infinite developer 343 says that Slipspace will provide "a living, breathing world ripe for exploration and endless gameplay possibilities," which has led some to believe that the game will feature open-world gameplay. Combine that with the fact that the studio is thinking of Halo Infinite as a live service game and you have a new, fully evolved Halo game, which is an event unto itself.

Halo Infinite has some major advantages coming out of the gate, such as the split screen capability which allows more than one person to experience the game on a console, a feature most game companies have ditched in the last few years. This is also the first Halo FPS to come to PC since Halo 2 (a Halo Online PC game was planned in Russia but was later canceled), which will allow the franchise to reach a much wider audience than it has in a decade.

While it's too early to say for sure, Halo Infinite feels like a revitalized Halo game that embraces current gaming trends. Will that be enough to topple Fortnite? Never count out the Chief.

Battlefield 5 arrives as a bit of an underdog this year, as it returns to World War II in a year when its main competition, Call of Duty, has moved to battle royale, hero multiplayer, and insane zombie action. While DICE's more traditional shooter can't quite tout the insanity of Black Ops 4, it will at least try to make a splash in the battle royale market with its Firestorm mode.

Unlike other battle royale modes, Firestorm isn't being built primarily for lone wolf gameplay. Instead, its focus is on team gameplay and vehicular combat, pitting 64 players in 16 squads against each other on "the largest Battlefield map ever," according to DICE's announcement. There will also be objectives and points to control throughout the map, which adds a bit more of a tactical flavor to battle royale as opposed to simply "find guns and armor, hide, and shoot."

While the mode won't be out until March 2019, several months after the release of the base game, there are already signs that Firestorm will do battle royale just a bit differently. Is this something Fortnite fans will embrace? It remains to be seen.