An epic battle in the offing!

By now everyone knows about the tussle between Fortnite and PUBG for top spot in terms of viewership and playerbase. However, apart from the casual and streaming audience that Fortnite seems to have an advantage with PUBG, it always had Esports to thank for its competitive nature until now.

Epic Games recently came up with two huge announcements that probably has Bluehole (PUBG developer/publisher) trembling in their boots. The first is the introduction of a brand new competitive mode in Fortnite called ‘Solo’ showdown. A regular competitive season that finally introduces some sort of leaderboards into Fortnite and gives top players in game rewards for finishing higher up the ladder. While PUBG has had leaderboards for quite a while, there is no talk of any rewards for top players making Fortnite much more rewarding. Even the battlepass in Fortnite rewards players for just playing and progressing, giving it a huge edge over PUBG.

The second announcement is what will probably blow PUBG out of the water as Epic Games announced support for Fortnite Esports with $100 million USD for the first year; to put things in perspective that’s more than all the other current Esports Prize Pools combined! However, Esports has always been something for a select few, out of reach for the majority, accessible only through watching online. Epic and Fortnite want to make it more inclusive. Their announcement read “We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different — we plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game.” As someone who’s only recently started enjoying Fortnite as much as PUBG, I do already find it way more rewarding and Fortnite might just seal the top spot.