Game of the Decade: Fortnite Became the Biggest Video Game in the World

Any evidence that Drake stream changed Fortnite status? I know it brought eyeballs but not sure it changed the game’s overall trajectory at all. Love the game!

With this kind of games this decade looks like something you don't want to remember

Fair enough, I could never get into Fortnite but can recognise that its obviously a cultural phenomenon. I remember it blew up around the last couple of weeks of high school so it was a nice way to play with a whole bunch of people that I knew I wouldn’t see much of anymore. I do wish that you’d do a proper games of the decade list though, these are more sorted by cultural impact rather than how good the actual game is.

if this was the only game i could play would pack up gaming seen lad next door on it up to 8 hours god its so boring

I can't deny that millions of kids who don't know any better play this but frankly it wouldn't make the top 1000 games I've ever played. It was ok, a mediocre 3rd person shooter with 1 map and some silly building mechanics and crappy dancing.

As for Ninja, he has to be one of the dullest people I've ever seen stream, I watched one out of curiosity and he didn't engage with his audience whatsoever and whenever he died (which was surprisingly often) he just claimed to his opponent cheated

Judging by where this is going let me guess the last three: Minecraft, the Sims and Candy Crush?

Maybe by sheer player numbers but not the best game by far. I can name plenty of others in the last 10 years much better.

TLOU, Persona5 and Breath of the Wild are the first to come to mind.

Even if you hate the game you can't deny how impressive it has been for keeping its players interested. My nephew couldn't wait to get home the other night for the live Star Wars event and he isn't even into Star Wars!

perhaps this editorial series should be titled "most influential games of the decade" since that is exactly what fortnite and destiny are. a first impression of this headline would assume the games on this list are actually "good" and deserving of a top 10 spot on a list but that is not the case here. in some cases, an influential game is not necesarily one that will be remembered as a classic. fornite is more like a fad that will eventually die as is pubg and pokemon go etc... the list goes on.

@GADG3Tx87 agreed. this editorial series is having a tough time differentiating "influential" from "notable" and it is creating a lot of confusion as readers are expecting the latter.

@Porco "We’re listing the ten Games of the Decade. These are the ten PlayStation titles released over the past ten years that we believe have left a historic mark on the industry. Whether it’s Destiny's impact on the Games as a Service space or Journey’s innovative approach to online connectivity, these are the releases that the industry will be referencing well into 2020 and beyond."

That is literally the very first paragraph of every single article this feature entails.

@gollumb82 you forgot pokemon go!

Ha ha ha I called it! I knew it would be. No game's took the world by storm as much as Fortnite the past few years

... Wish I didn't have to deal with collegues and parents thinking it's the boogeyman though 😂

Never played it myself though. Not my cup of tea.

@LiamCroft fair enough, but i don't think i am alone when i say i was expecting to see different games on this list. for example, there are plenty of fantastic indi games that are just as impactful if not more so than fortnite, in that they established a new avenue to making games. they literally evolved into a sub industry in themselves and blew the doors open for content creators to make their mark. a game like super meat boy for example is one such game and i would place it over fortnite without hesitation. well, i will reserve final judgements until this list is complete, but i expect there to be some major omissions in favour of market trending games. expectations of this list have been subverted and that is what is causing people to take it the wrong way. that in part is due to how the title is worded.

@Porco

Well, the series is having a tough time differentiating between "Game of the last 10 years" and "Game of the Decade." The first is correct while the second is not. The Decade doesn't end until December 31st 2020. Perish the thought an editor actually check facts though.

Just done some xmas shopping, Fortnite is everywhere . Its unbelievable if I was told a few years ago. Good for them

@Porco
You got to admit fortnite has been a phenomenon for everyone, kids, politics,even princes haha...etc
Say a pokemon game is nothing new really.(and I still have no clue about those)

I got to say though, the article makes it look like fortnite became popular thanks to Ninja. I feel its the other way round haha

@JJ2 sure, but so was angry birds and candy crush. there needs to be a better distinction between widespread/mainstream appeal and a top 10 contender.

Tried so many times but still can't get into it. I love the graphics and art style but I think my problem is Battle Royale, it just isn't working for me, I like countless respawn modes. In the end I acknowledge it's a wonderful game for those who like it and won't come here to type the "I have never played 'insert popular game'" so I'm so special comments I keep seeing in GTAV articles' comments.

@kyleforrester87

Facts matter.

@Porco
Well it's always subjective of course haha
Pushsquare opinion is not biblical or something

Edit
But again those you mention are nothing new to this decade.

I gave this game a few goes and I'd rate it as a 4/10. It's just poor on so many levels, Apex Legends is far better if battle royale is your thing.

But it certainly has had quite an impact, no question about that. The fact it's been in the news so many times is testament to that. The real horror story here though is how badly the staff are treated on the development team, like they're subhuman.

@kyleforrester87

Well, Pushsquare seems to be the only gaming web site that can't read a calendar, so maybe I should let it slide. Still, it's like that piece of burnt skin at the top of your mouth that you burn when you eat pizza that is too hot. You just can't seem to ignore it even though probably should.

I never touched Fortnite, but I can't deny the insane popularity it has.

@Yogsoggoth Alternatively, you could just search Google to see how many other websites are doing their own Game of the Decade features. GamesRadar for example: https://www.gamesradar.com/games-that-defined-the-decade-the-last-of-us-pushed-video-games-to-be-smarter-bolder-and-greater/

Or Eurogamer: https://www.eurogamer.net/archive/games-of-the-decade

Looking at the choices so far it’s been a terrible decade for gaming bringing out the very very worst in the greedy industry. You’ve mis-sold the decade completely.

People are still making great games and some of the best of all time have been made.

You just aren’t picking them.

@gollumb82 ⚒ craft. Or witcher. Or god of war?

@Ridwaano
You'd think these would be the picks. I get why some people think games like Fortnite deserve recognition solely based on their popularity but I can't help but feel sad because of it. Makes me feel like the Nobel Prize for Literature should be given to the authoress of Fifty Shades of Grey...

Love Fortnite, though I’m pretty useless at it, it’s always fun (still talking about the game here).

Once I read that Lovecraft had to remove one of the cosmic entities from his mythology, only because that one was more annoying than a bunch of Shoggoths. Its name was... @Yogsoggoth

I’ve always hated Fortnite, but this past few months it finally clicked. It’s actually a super solid game, namely since the Season 11 update, and the building mechanics make for some memorable battles that never would’ve occurred in any other game. I feel like the people here (you!!) should give it another shot, and make sure you learn to at least build a little before writing it off. It makes for a unique experience in a sea of same-y games, IMHO. Also, the online community seems nicer than other games (i.e. Apex Legends, where I refuse to play with randoms), with the scummier folks being adults, lol.

This uniqueness is also why I’d put LawBreakers (R.I.P.) up there as one of the best shooters this generation, with the zero gravity stuff. More fun than Overwatch, IMHO! Had the best soundtrack of the decade too, IMHO

Fantastic to see a game which actually requires skill and fast reflexes, a sense of belonging become a mainstream community for gamers casual and hardcore globally. Heck we can moan! But let's face it the editor is right. Our 'good ol' days' of pokemon, COD, tetris...well if we can remember these let's pass the torch to the next generation. Let's hope the next gaming generation are united in fun and common courtesy and be rid of us old trolls who grew up on console war toxicity and childish mine is better than yours media inspired trash. Epic Fortnite I salute you. For all you Fortnite players I salute you. For the gamers!

@kyleforrester87 I don't think anyone thinks play to win is positive.

Ive said it a few times, Epic have done great with fortnite. Last years World Cup was fantastic viewing and the skills involved in depth. My kids love it and as @ApostateMage said my son too couldn't wait for the star wars event.

Destiny equally was fantastic. Until you have spent a good 40 hours with the game and built up your arsenal to attempt a raid you haven't sampled the full product. It was brilliant.

The problem I have with gaming this decade is Lootboxes, cutting content from games to be repackaged as dlc, unnecessary online requirements for some games and online game services being cut making them unplayable. Especially the last 5 years.

@Yogsoggoth the decade of the tens does finish at the end of 2019. A decade is any given period of ten years using your own scale.

The scale we commonly use in popular culture is to describe the period starting on the 1st of January xxx0. Just imagine someone born on say mid June 1990 saying they are an 80s child. See what you are ranting about is stupid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/us/what-is-decade.html

So to sum up. People think that the decade ends at the end of the month, but they are wrong. But so many people are wrong, that wrong is considered right, but they are still wrong.

So instead of complaining to me that it's stupid to call a child born in 1990, a child of the 80s; complain to the monks who weren't smart enough to call the first year of recorded history 0.

I can't deny that Fortnite has had quite the impact. But in my opinion it is not a good one.

@Yogsoggoth is 1985-1994 a decade?

@Yogsoggoth - Except whenever a number moves from a 9, it essentially resets. For example, when you go from 9 to 10, you're ending the first line of numbers, and moving to the next cycle with a number to indicate the number of times you've restarted: 10 means you've restarted once, 50 means you've restarted five times, 140 means you've restarted 14 times, etc.
With this in mind, it makes no sense to have a decade start at 1 and end at 10, since 10 itself is the reset point, and the start of the new cycle. Sure, this creates a conundrum, since as you said, there is no year 0, but in that case, what's likely the case is the first 'decade' only goes from years 1-9, and then the decades continue as normal from year 10.

On topic, yeah, no argument on the impact of Fortnite, kinda crazy how much the game's blown up, but I guess PUBG kinda stoked peoples appetites for battle royale games and Fortnite just took advantage by providing the same but with the ability to play for free*.

@Yogsoggoth That article is based on an incorrect assumption that year zero should start when Jesus was born. But just as Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are different days. So the start of the year zero and the day of Jesus‘s birth are also different.

@carlos82 Watch YouTube for his rants complication

Bloody Fortnite. Yes it's popular but then so are the Tories and Trump!

It's only a game but I do hope the kids that play it play other games as well. It's like when Harry Potter supposedly got kids 'into' reading. If all they're reading is Harry Potter then what's the point?

@kyleforrester87 I had a bigger problem with the 8/10 for Metal Gear Survive... 😩 😔

But the Horizon Zero Dawn mistake was bad too. 😉

The game was not for me after walking or sneaking around and being shot and starting over and over on the same map i was done. But the game has a nice style, its really easy too pick up, it has a great rinse and repeat gameplay. Not for me its too much off the same.

@kyleforrester87 what happened there?

@kyleforrester87 The HZD fiasco, never knew about his lol

@kyleforrester87 I am very intrigued now mate, give me a brief summary haha

A mediocre online focused third person shooter that somehow got massively popular.

Not gonna deny it's popularity and money revenue, but it's not a really engaging game in it's genre. Kids love it I guess but even when it dies, I will simply be playing other games and have long forgotten about it. Minecraft as well.

Previews looked great before it was released, but ended up generic trash.

All I know about Fortnite is that it is another multiplayer game... Something like Team Fortress or Counter Strike? MMO? Warframe, something?.. There are billions of it. I don't know and I'm not interested at all.
The "biggest" game in the world for ME is The Last of Us... probably. Or maybe it's Silent Hill.

@Yogsoggoth Don't make me sing Rick Astley

To call Fortnite the "biggest video game in the world" is very disingenuous. It's a free-to-play game, so of course the numbers are going to be bloated. It would be much more accurate to say, "the biggest free-to-play video game in the world." To this date, even though subscribers have slided, World of Warcraft is still the biggest game in the world, because you have to buy the game and expansions.

As for its influence and reach, these are all insignificant. It's a game dominated by children and streamers who are trying to get the views of children, much in the same way Minecraft has been for years. No one over the age of 18 takes anything Fortnite does seriously, and we are not in an "age of battle royale," which, if Fortnite had the influence the author claims, we would be. The sales charts are still dominated by single player experiences.

@FellSorcerer Are you seriously trying to argue that Fortnite is not the biggest video game in the world? Come on. The amount of money you pay for the product has nothing to do with it.

@LiamCroft it has everything to do with it. It is an unavoidable fact that free-to-play games have a significantly easier time getting high player counts than games you have to buy. To use a sports analogy, why is soccer the most popular sport in the world? Is there something intrinsic about the game? No, not at all. It's because it is by far the cheapest sport to play, so kids all over the world learn and love it much more easily than football, hockey, baseball, or whatever else. Same thing applies for free-to-play games. They need to be separated into different categories, because it is not a level playing field.