By Stephen Dumeyer | Reporter

One misspelled word, Fortnite, has taken over the gaming world. After being stuck for nearly seven years in development, Epic games released the free-to-play game to the public on July 25, 2017. Nine months later, it now has over 40 million downloads and has reached a peak of 3.4 million concurrent players.

To reach this point, most games have taken years to build up the popularity that they have. Call of Duty has had 15 total games since 2003. CSGO, released in 2012, Rainbow Six Siege, released in late 2015, and many others   have taken many years to build up while Fortnite has surpassed them all.

Part of the success is due to the popularity of Battle Royale games and the time of its release. Games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, H1Z1, and others had brought popularity to the genre in the months leading up to Fortnite’s release.

For those that aren’t as familiar, Battle Royale games are games that start off 100 people that typically drop down on the map and search for loot. As the game progresses, the play area gets smaller and smaller until there is only one left standing. Each game puts their own twist on it, but Fortnite seems to have found the right formula to satisfy consumers.

Fortnite also reached fame by being the first Battle Royale game available on console. Games like H1Z1 and PUBG were PC exclusives which limited the player count drastically. PUBG has been published by Microsoft on Xbox 1 since Fortnite’s release. For now, Fortnite is the only Battle Royale game available for PS4, but PUBG is likely to see a PS4 version this fall if all goes well on Xbox 1.

However, sales are not the only thing that it has outdone its competitors in. Recently, Fortnite became the most watched game on Twitch, the world’s #1 streaming site for video games, and has over double the amount of people that watch its top competitor, PUBG.

All Fortnite’s accomplishments have been made without the game having an official release. Not only has the game been in development for a long time, but it’s still technically in development. Despite the added DLC and other updates, the game is still in an early-access state. Developers originally made an official release date but removed it, so it is uncertain if the game will ever be fully released.

Overall, Fortnite’s success as a sandbox survival  video game goes to show that classic video game concepts will never die. With millions of players world-wide, Fortnite may prove to be one of the most successful video games in history.

What video games will take the world by storm next?