Fortnite fad ‘has peaked’ as viewing figures tumble and teens look to new games
Three consecutive quarters of declining viewership even as game streaming viewers grow in number mean the end is nigh, say experts
FORTNITE is still the most popular game in the world, and is still both watched and played by millions of people, but its time at the top may be coming to an end.
The financial analysts at Piper Jaffray have crunched the numbers based on viewing data, sales and surveys, and come to the conclusion that "interest in the game" may well have peaked.
A report from the firm posted reveals the scale of the problem.
Viewers on popular video game streaming website Twitch have declined each of the last three quarters, they say.
The latest fall is 7 per cent drop in the first three months of this year which comes despite the start of a new season, new competitions with huge amounts of prize money, a 10-million viewer concert, and total viewing hours for top games overall rising 20 per cent.
Of the top ten games on Twitch in the first three months of the year, only Fortnite, rival Battle Royale title PUBG and Blizzard's card game Hearthstone failed to gain viewers.
Hearthstone posted the biggest percentage drop as it dropped a quarter of its viewers -- but Fortnite's 1.3 million viewer loss was the biggest total decline and dwarfed PUBG's 100,000-viewer slide.
That followed a 13 per cent drop in the fourth quarter of last year after revenue growth declines in the Autumn seemed to suggest the beginning of the end.
The boffins also revealed that as of the start of this year, almost twice as many Fortnite-playing teens were planning to "buy more other games" compared to the previous quarter, another strong indication that they are starting to move onto the next thing, whatever that may be.
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The rise of EA's Apex Legends is one factor for the most recent drop, and given that game hasn't kept up its early pace, we may yet see a last hurrah from Epic's moneyspinner as the updates keep coming and getting more ambitious.
Meanwhile, recent news has many console gamers are looking even further ahead.
Sony recently revealed some details about the PlayStation 5, Microsoft has just announced a new budget Xbox, and Nintendo seem to have a new Switch coming by the end of the year too.
Others are worried about Sony's 'ban' on sexual content in future PlayStation games.
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