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(This is part two in our look back at the first two years of Fortnite. Read part one here.)
The journey from sidenote to superstar success was now in the history books, as explored in part one, but now the question turned to longevity. Did Fortnite 
have staying power? Would its seasonal Battle Pass concept keep people coming back? Epic Games had to show that it still had plenty of cards left to play.
Season 4: Full Featured Fortnite, and an Esport Emerges
Looking back on the various seasons so far, it was this fourth season where everything we’ve come to think of as Fortnite was entirely in place. For the first time, a new cosmetic graffiti spray system was added to the game, and the season featured seasonal outfits that would progressively unlock the more levels players earned.
Credit: Epic Games
This was also the season when the weird storylines of Fortnite started to emerge. In the lead up to Season Four, a meteor event took place, marking the first major change to the island’s map with the destruction of map location “Dusty Depot,” a move that showed the map we had come to know was going to see dramatic changes as part of the game’s evolution. And as the season progressed the game led players toward another event; the rocket launch on June 30, 2018, the first of its kind moment when a shared real-time experience took place inside the game world.
During Season Four the game also got its first vehicle, which in the comedic style Fortnite was embracing turned out to be a shopping cart.
The big cultural impacts continued for Fortnite, with a limited-time event in May 2018 that brought Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet to the game. Both Epic Games and Marvel said the event was born not of a commercial agreement but simply a mutual love of each other’s work.
On May 22, 2018, Epic Games dropped a bombshell on the competitive scene when it announced it would put $100M USD into esports prize pools through the end of 2019. Suddenly the game that was seen as fun but lacking serious competitive credentials was setting itself up to become the biggest ticket esport on the planet.
Credit: Epic Games
This announcement also confirmed that since the game’s launch on iOS in March 2018, the boom in mobile players led to the Fortnite player base hitting 125M in June 2018.
Epic also held a $3M charity Fortnite Pro-Am event at E3 on June 12, 2018; its first major event to bring star streamers together with fans of the game from music, TV, and sporting worlds. It was also a first test of how the game could shift from following a single player to delivering an esports broadcast experience.
The Pro-Am result seemed to follow the script as the game’s biggest star, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, and his celebrity partner Marshmello won the title. Twitch viewership crossed 1M concurrent viewers across all channels for the game, delivering a new peak record for Fortnite (but not an all-time record).
Blevins also signed a sponsorship deal with Red Bull and announced their first esports partnership. “Red Bull Rise Till Dawn” would take place as an all-night competition and livestream on July 21. It would feature a hybrid points system that rewarded both eliminations and high placement in rounds, aiming to give viewers exciting gun battles while still keeping survival as an important element to success.
Season 5: Summer Skirmishes and a Shiny Cube
After the announcement in May, it was almost two months before Fortnite esports events actually kicked off with the Summer Skirmish, a series of online tournament events running from July 14 through August 25. This launch was just two days after the beginning of Season Five, which also saw the arrival of the first ‘true’ vehicle – the All-Terrain Kart.
Between the new vehicle, the introduction of rifts, and the new desert section of the map, Epic Games set a standard that new features would be something esports players would need to quickly adapt to if they wanted to succeed.
As Fortnite’s first big push to establish itself as an esport, Epic did not commit to running the Summer Skirmish on a single scoring format. Throughout the eight week competition, the rules were changed. Over sets of games, points would accumulate based on round placings and eliminations.
Credit: Epic Games
This would become the hallmark of Fortnite esports, as Epic worked to find the ideal balance that would encourage exciting and aggressive play while also rewarding survival and Victory Royales.
In August, Epic Games took the surprise step to launch to Android by skipping the Google Play Store entirely, forcing fans to sideload the game to their Android devices. Some, including Google, argued this opened up players to potentially malicious software attacks on their phones. Epic argued the 30% Play Store fees were too high, and suggested it would potentially create its own Android store that charged better fees.
The game first launched as an exclusive for Samsung Galaxy S9 owners, before opening up to the wider Android community.
Blevins’ star continued to rise alongside the game’s; in August 2018 he became the first Twitch streamer to pass 10M followers.
Credit: Epic Games
In-game story events also continued, this time with a giant purple cube appearing on August 25, 2018. The cube began moving slowly toward Loot Lake, and players affectionately dubbed it “Kevin.” By Sept. 19, Kevin the cube dissolved into Loot Lake, changing the properties of the lake itself into a trampoline-like bounce surface in the process.
On Sept. 21, 2018, the Fall Skirmish Series began, just days after a major change to the map experience, and continued for four weeks, taking the tournament into Season Six where further changes would continue to reshape Loot Lake.
As the game approached Season Six, comfortably passing its one year anniversary with growth still trending in the right direction, it seemed Epic Games was preparing to leverage the game’s success to take on one of the biggest targets in the gaming industry: Valve’s Steam Store.
That’s in the next part of our look back at the History of Fortnite’s Perfect Purple Storm.
