Situating the appeal of Fortnite within children's changing play cultures

Marcus Carter; Kyle Moore; Jane Mavoa; Heather Horst; Luke Gaspard

doi:10.1177/1555412020913771

Situating the appeal of Fortnite within children's changing play cultures

Marcus Carter, Kyle Moore, Jane Mavoa, Heather Horst, Luke Gaspard

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fortnite is a massively multiplayer online "battle royale" game that rapidly grew in 2018 to become one of the most popular digital games in the world, with a reported peak of 10.8 million concurrent players and 250 million registered players in March 2019. Based on 24 interviews with young people aged 9-14 (17 boys and 7 girls), this article sets out to provide an account of the appeal and experience of Fortnite. While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly why Fortnite has been such a phenomenal, global success, in this article, we argue that its appeal can be better explained by its intersections with YouTube and game livestreaming, the way the game acts as a vehicle for social capital and the performance of identity, and the rich sociality of play.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	453-471
Number of pages	19
Journal	Games and Culture
Volume	15
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412020913771
Publication status	Published - 2020

Keywords

Fortnite Battle Royale (game)
Internet games industry
YouTube (electronic resource)
children

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10.1177/1555412020913771

Cite this

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AB - Fortnite is a massively multiplayer online "battle royale" game that rapidly grew in 2018 to become one of the most popular digital games in the world, with a reported peak of 10.8 million concurrent players and 250 million registered players in March 2019. Based on 24 interviews with young people aged 9-14 (17 boys and 7 girls), this article sets out to provide an account of the appeal and experience of Fortnite. While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly why Fortnite has been such a phenomenal, global success, in this article, we argue that its appeal can be better explained by its intersections with YouTube and game livestreaming, the way the game acts as a vehicle for social capital and the performance of identity, and the rich sociality of play.

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Situating the appeal of Fortnite within children's changing play cultures

Abstract

Keywords

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