Just in case for some reason you thought Fortnite had already peaked in terms of hype for some reason …
There’s no escaping the Fortnite phenomenon right now. And while there are many reasons for its success, there’s little debate that making the game free-to-play was a genius move on the part of Epic Games. That’s especially true since it’s making its way to mobile, where gamers generally expect games to be free and to spend money on them only when they feel it’s worthwhile.
From Epic’s perspective, that only works out if mobile gamers actually spend money. And boy, are they ever. SensorTower reports that Fortnite mobile players spent $1.5 million on in-app purchases (IAPs) in just 72 hours. That’s not uncommon for top mobile titles, but it is for a game as new to mobile as Fortnite, which just landed on the App Store within the past week.
Making those figures even more impressive is the fact that Fortnite isn’t even open to the general public on iOS devices quite yet and isn’t on Android in the U.S. at all. Instead, Epic Games is doing what is essentially a very large scale closed beta by allowing people to download the game for free but requiring people to have an invite code — which you get by either having a friend already in the game send you one or registering your email with Epic Games and waiting for your turn to get in — before they start playing.
Next: How to get a Fortnite iPhone invite code right now
In other words, if Fortnite is making this kind of loot now, just imagine once the gates are thrown open and both Apple and Android users can play the game. Every once in a while, a game bursts on the scene and just ends up as a license to print money. Fortnite is that game right now, and its official worldwide mobile launch is just going to make Epic’s coffers fill up that much faster.