Not every video game fad can last forever, that’s just the truth of this industry. What is blowing up one day can just as quickly turn, and fans of some huge game (Among Us) will immediately shift to another similar game (Goose Goose Duck) because it offers something new. After years of dominating the gaming industry, it seems that is exactly what is happening to the Battle Royale genre.
The battle royale concept of a last-man-standing deathmatch isn’t anything new, but it hadn’t really translated into video games until the Hunger Games films hit. Popular mods started popping up in Minecraft following the weapon pile in the center formula. A modder who went by the handle PlayerUnknown later created his own mod for the zombie survival game DayZ that incorporated early battle royale aspects by changing the Minecraft model to having loot scattered around the map.
This mod later led to the creation of the full game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), which exploded like an atomic bomb in the gaming world when it was released in 2017. This success inspired Epic Games to take Fortnite (at that time, only a PvE survival game) and add on a free-to-play battle royale mode that racked up 125 million players in less than a year and eclipsed PUBG entirely due to being free. Other publishers and developers saw this happen and immediately wanted in on the action, starting the Battle Royale boom.
The Battle Royale genre was never really something that was made to last because the formula is too static, there’s not enough room for difference or no actual desire to experience. Fortnite has remained the favorite because it did building when no one else did. But even then, in the last year, they took away building for everyone before introducing Zero Build to offer something new.
Not every game has that opportunity, and Fortnite keeps producing huge media crossovers that let fans be celebrities or superheroes. Epic Games gets pop stars and rappers to be part of their Icon Series rarity of cosmetics, and fans flock to pick up those skins. However, that’s not possible for every single battle royale out there.
In hindsight, PUBG was almost just a prototype, but it also revealed the truth that nothing necessarily lasts, time moves on. That game peaked at over 3 million users at the tail end of 2017 into 2018. Now, it averages maybe 200k after going free-to-play because that was the only way the game could continue functioning to fight the competition.
Call of Duty was once the biggest franchise possible, now there are fewer players spread among the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and Warzone 2.0 than PUBG when it should be the new hotness. Part of this can certainly be attributed to franchise fatigue, Call of Duty’s annual releases have been met with mixed views for the last several, as well as diminishing player counts. The fact that Warzone 2.0 didn’t transfer player cosmetics and unlocks from the previous version wasn’t the best choice.
Call of Duty is so ubiquitous in gaming at this point that you either know you like it or you don’t. Those that knew they’d never like it stayed away, but then those veteran players weren’t even rewarded for their loyalty to the brand and didn’t return.
Perhaps the real crux of the whole issue boils down to market saturation. While it has slowed, too many battle royale games are still coming out, and they fail to draw any audience’s attention away from the games that players have already learned.
At this point, you’d need a game made from a property that is so widely beloved that players couldn’t help but flock to it. However, Fortnite has the market cornered on stuff like that. From anime to Marvel, they get fan-favorite characters, keeping players engaged.
While it was largely forgettable, that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt battle royale came and went last year with the dullest thud. Having the Vampire: The Masquerade name attached to the game should have easily resonated with older PC players, but that’s not enough.
The closures of Apex Legends Mobile and Rumbleverse might just be writing on the wall. Sure, they aren’t exactly the first battle royales to get shut down, but Apex Legends is still a recognizable name. Though, Rumbleverse was also an Epic Games exclusive on PC, which probably worked against it and further proves my point. If the PC platform can matter enough to kill a game, it means the battle royale genre is untenable.
We’re likely seeing the end of the battle royale craze, but the genre won’t just disappear overnight. Apex Legends and PUBG have dedicated enough fan bases to keep the games afloat, but development on new battle royale games will likely cease in the near future. We’ll still probably get a couple to attempt to recapture the magic, but unless it’s something that can go toe to toe with Fortnite, it’s a losing battle.