How ironic that Fortnite was able to acquire the licenses of Juventus Football Club which was something that FIFA 21 wasn't able to accomplish.
Fortnite FIFA 21
— GOAL (@goal) January 19, 2021
But you know what else is ironic? Fortnite is the biggest community in gaming, amassing over 100 million hours watched and 7 million hours streamed on Twitch. They even boasted the most viewed video on Twitch with TheGrefg reaching a record breaking 2.4 million concurrent viewers for his skin reveal. Not even the most popular esports tournaments could match his numbers. The game even has a plethora of surprises in their bags, acquiring the rights of Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Halo, The Walking Dead, and even the football scene. Celebrities like Canadian rapper Drake and NBA superstar Ben Simmons have devoted their time grinding their way to a Victory Royale.
But amid their popularity, the game's esports scene experienced a massive decline.
It started very promising when Richard Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, carried the Fortnite banner through his Ponpon dances and his own esports tournament. His event even led to the discovery of future esports professional players.
Yet Fortnite's blistering start in the competitive scene felt like a marathoner that fainted in the middle of the race or a formula 1 car that got its wheels burnt. The game's demise was already imminent as a lot of professional players have expressed their concerns on the developer's commitment. Epic Games' flagship battle royale game, has produced insane numbers yet it doesn't translate to an overwhelming support in the esports scene.
This has always been the case since its introduction in 2018. The scene was plagued with cheaters in its first World Cup tournament. There were cases when Epic would change the patches weeks or days before the actual tournament, causing some overpowered mechanics. Given the ignorance of the developers to their needs, some professional players left the scene to pursue a career in streaming.
A few weeks ago, Williams “Zayt” Aubin, who is dubbed as the game's equivalent to Michael Jordan, announced his retirement to the professional scene. His decision further stamped the lackluster behavior of Epic Games towards the competitive scene as other notable names have expressed their thoughts. Benjy “benjyfishy” David Fish stated the decline of the game's prize pool as a sign that the scene is already dying.
and with prize pools constantly getting less and less its gonna be even harder for unknown players to start making a living out of the game which will eventually make them want to stop playing and the comp scene will slowly start dying out if it carries on
— benjyfishy (@benjyfishy) January 10, 2021
Journalist, Rod “Slasher” Breslau, supported the competitive scene's downfall after witnessing the collapse of organizations.
Zayt announces his retirement as a professional Fortnite player. between Epic reducing the 2021 prize money a substantial amount, orgs leaving because of it, and the general lackluster state of the Fortnite esports, Epic is truly dropping the ball right now
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 12, 2021
It's a shame that these unfortunate circumstances had to happen, since the viewership of their esports events looks promising. The last World Cup event that occurred in 2019 accumulated a million average viewers and 22 million hours watched. Viewership even peaked at 2.3 million. So far the numbers came from YouTube and Twitch statistics. What more if they included Facebook, Twitter, and the game client's numbers as well?
At some point, these numbers were able to convince organizations like Fnatic to feel optimistic about the scene's future. Unfortunately the opposite happened. Fnatic's CEO Sam Matthews blamed the developers for being apathetic. Eventually, he was left with no choice but to disband the team. Other notable organizations like Team Atlantis followed suit. But this didn't just happen in 2020, as the prior year saw Na'Vi break their squad apart. Similar to Fnatic, Na'Vi pointed the fingers on the developers.
Guys we still massively believe in the potential of Fortnite competitive. But I'm not sure Epic always feels the same way. We speak with all publishers, work with them on driving esports. Epic doesnt feel it needs us. We're here, open, & ready to help drive @FortniteGame. Use us.
— Sam Mathews (@sammathews) February 14, 2020
These Tweets reveal that the developers are more inclined to pursue ventures in expounding their fanbase. They've already accumulated a huge degree of success in doing so as the arrival of Marvel's Galactus attracted a massive community. The event set new records as the game experienced 15.3 million concurrent viewers and more than 3.4 million viewers on YouTube and Twitch.
Given the current state of the game, some critics would argue that Epic should just remove the esports scene. Will they follow this advice? Their recent announcement would say otherwise.
Epic Games announced that they are willing to shell out $20 million for their upcoming tournaments. It's not as big as their 2019 World Cup prize pool at $30 million, but it could be the catalyst to revive the competitive scene. They've likewise announced that there will be additional tournaments which includes a mid and end of year global tournament. There has yet to be an official release for a World Cup tournament this year.
This could be their response to their critics who argue that following the fan service trend is their specialty. Will this be enough to support organizations? I'm hoping that Epic have learned from their past mistakes.
It's now or never for them to revitalize the game's competitive scene and solving this issue could finally end the debate that Fortnite is dying.
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