Battle royale games have now become a staple of the videogame scene. Many of the original titles – Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG – all retain a solid daily player base of millions, and are some of the industry’s biggest cash cows. The recent launch of the high profile Simpsons Fortnite season and the unexpected release of EA’s Battlefield tie-in Red Sec attracted millions of players back to the format – but is this a set up for new long term growth and success?
Well, for some gamers, the fact that the chances of battle royale success can feel like buying a lotto ticket has been somewhat off putting. The stats show that playtime is still strong, but significantly down across all the top titles – even though interest has recently spiked. This article will explore what happened to the genre, how it got to the state it is in now and what some exciting developments might mean for its future.
The Numbers Have Spiked but Are Down in the Long Term
Battle royale games first emerged in the early 2010s with ARMA 2 mod Day Z: Battle Royale. The genre was named after the cult classic Japanese movie Battle Royale from the year 2000, in which a group of 100 unruly teens are dropped into a deathmatch with random gear and weapons on a remote island with a rapidly shrinking field of play marked by geolocation tech.
Videogames took this idea wholesale – minus the teenage ultraviolence – and adapted it via a variety of existing video game ideas. While Day-Z and Player Unknown: Battlegrounds (PUBG) went with hardcore military realism and huge sprawling maps, games like Fortnite took the third-person cartoony route and added destructible scenery and base building to the mix.
Starting as a side game mode to a co-op shooter in 2017, Fortnite soon went on to become one of the biggest games of all time. Apex Legends came a year later, adding character and ability based first person combat to the genre, and then FPS heavyweight Call of Duty joined the battle with its BR mode Warzone in late 2019.
In 2021, battle royale games accounted for more than 19% of all videogame playtime globally, according to some estimates. This has dropped to around 12% in 2025, as gamers grow tired of a saturated market and are looking for new multiplayer formats.
Battlefield RED SEC is a Great Example of Doing Nothing Particularly New
One great example that illustrates this well, is the new Battlefield battle royale mode – REDSEC. The game is fine – technically sound with a great map and arguably one of the better battle royales in recent years.
But, a combination of Battlefield players feeling aggrieved that their game, which has long been seen as a more tactical alternative to the frenetic, twitch shooting of Call of Duty, is releasing a BR mode and the general sentiment that the game does little to innovate, has caused it to receive very bad review scores online in its opening weeks.
Which is a shame, because it is a good game. It just arrived a year or two late to the party, at a time when battle royale interest had already peaked.
Fortnite’s Simpsons Collab is Arguably it’s Best Season in Years
However, one game is still doing quite well for itself. The dominant battle royale titan Fortnite simply cannot be dethroned. The game still has 110 million monthly active players and around 30 million daily players, and makes massive amounts of cash from skin sales and battle passes. Especially through its relentless collaborations with high profile IPs from all over the entertainment world.
In fact its 2024 season ending event had 15 million concurrent players – a record for the game. That’s all without mentioning the very recent release of Fortnite Simpsons.
The iconic cartoon and its Springfield setting have been converted into a battle royale experience, and players are…. well, they’re divided. Some people, especially critics and reviewers, absolutely love it. Long-term fans are less sure, mainly due to the smaller map which makes games even more chaotic and high-octane.
If the mile-a-minute cartoon graphics and shotgun wielding anime characters fighting banana suited people with laser rifles isn’t your jam, then a Simpsons collaboration probably won’t make you change your mind. But for fans of the game, and the classic cartoon, it will be a big pull to return.
Developers Are Beginning to Refresh the Format
Outside of Fortnite’s continued success while the rest of the genre declines, developers are trying new things. Battlefield REDSEC’s Gauntlet mode combines squad based objective gameplay with a battle royale-style knockout structure – and it has seen great feedback from reviewers and the community.
The hugely successful hero shooter (another genre that has become somewhat saturated like battle royales) Marvel Rivals has also recently confirmed it is adding some new game modes including a 100 person social map. Rumors have long swirled it may still explore the battle royale concept.
