The Fortnite Battle Royale season-ending event, “The Device”, saw record-breaking numbers as the viewer turnout. The event had already been delayed before due to the civil unrest in the US over the death of George Floyd.
As Midas’ Doomsday Clock hit midnight, The Device bombarded the present map with explosions, and then it got submerged into the sea. These were the unforeseen consequences of Midas’ attempt to stop the storm. The part where the map gets submerged into the sea serves as a teaser for the Aquaman presence in the next season of Fortnite Battle Royale.
Read more: Fortnite: Epic Working on First Person Mode?
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The servers for this live event crashed as they reached capacity 30 minutes before the show started. Around 12 million players came online to witness the event in-game. This is around 300000 players short of the highest viewer turnout in-game at 12.3 million players, during the first Travis Scott concert.
The event broke Twitch’s all-time concurrent viewer record
The event saw a total of 2.3 million viewers on Twitch across various channels. This broke the 1.7 million viewer record set by League of Legends during last year’s World Championship. The game beat the viewer record of Fortnite with a little over 1.7 million viewers that year (Fortnite got a 1.7 million viewer turnout at the Black Hole event).
A lot of players who were on time for the “Device” event had to go back disappointed. They had to watch the event on Twitch, resulting in the insane amount of viewer turnout on Twitch. But it’s not just the players who could not witness the event in-game. Donald Mustard, the creative director of Fortnite Battle Royale, had to watch the event elsewhere too.
Read more: Fortnite Battle Royale: SypherPK Speculates on Season 3 and Doomsday Event
The official Twitter handle for Fortnite posted a tweet about this. The tweet promised that, in the future, the game will have a better capacity to accommodate more players and fans in-game during their events.
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We were overwhelmed by the response to The Device. At 12M players in-game, we capped participation for stability while 8.4M more watched live on Twitch + YouTube. As we push the edge of what live-events can be, we’re improving systems so more of you can experience them in-game. pic.twitter.com/YTycsB1Zoh
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) June 16, 2020
Many fans had to tune in to live streams by various streamers on Twitch and Youtube to witness the event. Youtube, being a larger platform, saw the turnout of 6.1 million viewers witnessing the season-ending event.
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A virtual event having a turnout situation like that of a concert
Such turnout figures at a virtual event really make us think. Fortnite had already delayed the event once before. The viewer turnout reaching the capacity in-game incidentally proved beneficial for Twitch, since it got a huge viewer boost for one day. Now, fans are eagerly waiting for season 3.
