Most Impressive Fortnite Records
Fortnite is nothing short of a phenomenon. The battle royale game has taken the world by storm just months after it arrived on the scene as a competitor to the seemingly untouchable PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and since then it has evolved into something the industry simply has never seen before. The game's innovative and creative mechanics, tongue-in-cheek graphics and taunts, and sheer watchability has created a perfect storm that has since coalesced into gaming's One Great Juggernaut.
When a game that is, at its core, about competition gets popular, we inevitably see the development of some pretty cool record-keeping alongside it. Fortnite is no exception, and in its short lifespan it has accumulated some truly shocking records, both for in-game action and real-world impact. Whether it's the number of people tuning in to watch someone survive Anarchy Acres or it's a gunshot heard 'round the world, Fortnite just can't stop setting the bar. Here's our compilation of the most impressive records in Fortnite.
9z zEk0 - Most undisputed single match kills, 40, PC
This record is one of the most heavily contested in all of Fortnite, and justifiably so: there's nothing quite like putting a stamp on a solo game by dominating the leaderboard in kills. For streamers and popular Fortnite personalities, the solo match kills record is even more valuable, as it kind of functions like a badge of honor that states they're the best individually skilled player in the world.
If that sounds appealing and you think you want to give it a shot, though, it's probably worth reconsidering. 9z zEk0, a player from Argentina, currently holds the record for PC kills and it's a staggering one. In a video posted to YouTube, zEk0 showcases an insane run in solo that sees him hit a staggering 40 kills in one session.
Since his achievement, a few players have actually eclipsed 9z zEk0's total, but each record has been disputed by the community. MaximilianMus has 3 entries that are higher, but they're all considered not 100% legitimate because of the potential that he exploited the matchmaking to include people that were helping him boost his total. There's another player, Elemental_Ray, who also has a questionable record in this category — but one that's worth a look.
Elemental_Ray - Most disputed single match kills, 48, PC
Yeah, this is for the same category, but the two players couldn't have gone about their business any more differently, and Elemental_Ray's disputed entry onto the leaderboard is the stuff of legend in the Fortnite community. People still can't make up their minds about whether or not Elemental_Ray should be celebrated as a genius, a griefer, or both, and it's made for some interesting discussion in the interim.
Let's set the stage. It's finally the most important event in Fortnite history, the Season 4 launch of the mysterious rocket that had been counted down for long enough that players began to attach unrealistic expectations to its execution. There's a temporary truce, as players all help each other build to the sky to get the best view of the rocket as it leaves orbit. That truce lasts until Elemental_Ray sets off a chain of explosives that sends an entire platform of people just enjoying the moment to plummet to their demise.
Elemental_Ray ended up racking up 48 kills with this move. The fact that it's been disputed since shows that there's an unspoken honor system within Fortnite record chasers, and it is an important history lesson for those interested in how online communities handle social events and poor behavior.
KiritoSan - Longest match win streak, squads, 179, PC
For most of us, squads gameplay is a welcome chance to play Fortnite with friends while attempting to get that elusive first place finish. The right amount of finesse, communication, and luck can put together a run that sees even the most unlikely group stick together and take down the competition. On some hallowed nights, or with some particularly talented groups, squads mode is definitely the most likely to yield a win streak of some fashion as well. Having more players of a similar skill helps reduce the variance of a game with a hundred players all attempting to reach the same goal.
For KiritoSan, winning isn't just something that happens by chance. The German Fortnite player has amassed an insane win total in Squads gameplay on the PC platform: a staggering 179 matches in a row with their squad. It's not a disputed record, either, so the community is generally okay with admitting that KiritoSan's squad is the Fortnite equivalent of the New York Yankees.
Gato Velandia - Longest snipe, 491m, PC
Unfamiliar with sniping in Fortnite? It's not the hardest thing in the world, especially at short distances, but as players begin to get better and have to deal with more refined strategy and execution, it gets a lot more difficult. Hitting a moving target with a sniper rifle at over 250m is a skill that needs to be honed and, while certainly achievable, isn't something that can be picked up overnight.
Gato Velandia thought 250m was way too easy, though, so he stepped up his game, almost doubling the distance in a successful snipe that happened 491m away from the barrel of his sniper rifle. It's an impressive shot, but it's not without its critics, who have argued that there's not enough evidence it wasn't a hacked shot.
Parallax, Risker, Kenith, and SirDimetrious (100 Thieves) - Most squad kills, 54, PC
Squads world records might be the annals that require the most amount of dedication to achieve. Just having one good player isn't enough, and given the high level of competition that Fortnite's top tier players have to deal with, even the entire squad being pretty good isn't going to cut it. There's a reason this record generally seems to only change hands between genuine pro squads.
As it stands, 100 Thieves is the team that currently holds the record for most kills in a squad game on PC with a whopping 54. 100 Thieves is a team comprised entirely of professional players, so it's not surprising to see them have the kind of success many competitive players could only dream of, but that doesn't take away from the sheer insanity of racking up 54 kills across the team in a single match. 100 Thieves had to play incredibly aggressively to make sure they converted a high number of kills, so it's not like the team just stuck together the entire time and swept across the map.
This record is also disputed by another team, FaZe Clan. FaZe also posted a 54 kill record, but theirs included kills on their own teammates to bolster the total toward the end of the game, something that 100 Thieves did not do in their well-documented run.
Ninja - Most concurrent Fortnite viewers, 667,000
Without a doubt, any Fortnite record involving Ninja is among the most well-known gaming records in history. The streamer has been a godsend for Epic Games' title, bringing an incredible number of eyes onto a game that was initially considered an underdog against PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Ninja first set a concurrent Fortnite viewer record when he partnered with rapper Drake for one of the most buzzworthy streams of all time. Somehow, though, he surpassed that without any help from one of the most iconic pop culture stars of the last decade (unless you count Ninja himself, which is a fair argument).
At an exhibition event in Las Vegas, Ninja, real name Tyler Blevins, smashed his own record by hitting 667,000 concurrent viewers during the stream. ESPN later reported that Ninja was the third most interacted with person in all of March, the month that the event occurred, only being surpassed by two of sports' most historic figures in Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. Any chance we're going to get a Ronaldo and Ninja collaboration in the near future? For the first time in the history of esports, the proposition might be too appealing to an international sports superstar to ignore forever.
Most revenue generated by a free game in a one-month span, May 2018 - $318.3 million
Remember when free-to-play games were looked at like they were never going to be real contenders in the video game market? We sure do, but it seems like a distant memory now given just how successful the free-to-play model has been over the past few years. Games like Pokemon GO and Clash of Clans are consistently some of the highest-earning titles in the industry despite being ostensibly free, and microtransactions have become near-ubiquitous as a result.
Fortnite is the latest, and greatest, in a series of games that have made an impact big enough to rival a world-ending meteor crash. The title set an industry record for most revenue generated by a free game in a one-month span recently, earning over $318 million in just May 2018 alone.
For reference, Pokemon GO was estimated to make about $2 million a day in July 2018. That's roughly $62 million a month, which is just shy of one-fifth of what Fortnite made in May. The success of Fortnite is on a whole new level in video gaming, and it's possible we'll see this record broken in the future.
Most videos relating to a single game uploaded to YouTube in a single month
It's not just that Fortnite is buoyed by a few noticeable personalities, although having transcendent Twitch players like Ninja is certainly a bonus. Part of what makes Fortnite so appealing is how easy it is to start playing it and get hooked, making it a casual favorite even while more seasoned players release compilation videos of maneuvers most people could never hope to pull off.
The depth of the Fortnite community is best illustrated by one of the YouTube records the game has smashed. Ryan Wyatt, the Global Head of Gaming at YouTube, tweeted in March this year that Fortnite had set a new record for most videos relating to a single game uploaded to YouTube in a single month. While he didn't provide specific numbers, YouTube has been around for a long time, and has been a stalwart in video game communities that upload a lot of fan-made content like Halo and Minecraft.
Fortnite isn't just about the top-end of its player base. It's a worldwide phenomenon that features both quality and quantity, as evidenced by the wide breadth of records it has set.
Most concurrent viewers of a YouTube video game livestream, 1.1 million viewers
This record is impressive for a few reasons. The first is quite simple: Ninja wasn't involved, and yet somehow Fortnite still managed to shatter a concurrent viewer record all the same. The second reason is a bit more complicated.
elrubiusOMG, an incredibly popular Spanish YouTuber, was the architect of a 100 YouTube streamer Fortnite tournament that drew in some of the platform's biggest names. He put together a livestream in March that lasted a shade over three hours and managed to captivate 1.1 million viewers at one point, an achievement that set a YouTube record. That number is also nearly double what Ninja's Twitch record is, sparking a short-lived debate over which platform is the true Fortnite powerhouse (the answer: probably still the one that features Ninja).
While elrubiusOMG's stream didn't set a YouTube record outside of the video game sub-section, it's worth noting that the Fortnite streamer competition is on the list with things like a human being literally skydiving from space onto Earth. Give Fortnite some time, though. With the kind of money Epic Games is raking in off the title's success, they might be able to fund their own space adventures soon.