Drop in. Nearly 100 other players did the same thing. They may be everywhere, but some are in your face. They fall first and you clean the battlefield. You can hear gunshots in the distance. You fight a little more, hide, and clean. The world shrinks and forces dispersed elite players. Are you in your final position?
Sounds like a fun little gameplay loop. That was the case for a while. Whether the introduction to the Battle Royale genre is Playnaus-Managed Battlefield or Minecraft Hunger Games, it’s an arena where we all somehow found ourselves. But that was years ago. It’s trendy and never too close to the waves of nostalgia. The Battle Royale genre appears to be on the last leg, but there is one holdout.
If you’re playing the Battle Royale game in 2025, it’s almost certainly Fortnite.
A recent study by Newzoo has made some interesting discoveries about what people choose every day. According to them, Shooters and Battle Royals account for 40% of playtime in all the countries they saw. In 2021, these 40 points were split almost evenly between the two, with the Battle Royals accounting for 19% of all total playtime. A few years later, that 19 fell to 12.
That’s certainly the majority of players have disappeared, but Newzoo found something even more interesting when breaking it down into a specific battle royale game. In 2021, Fortnite took home 43% of his time playing for the Battle Royals. The same number in 2024 was a whopping 77%.
Once this genre is dropped, the player appears to have chosen one of two choices. Switch completely to a new kind of game or pick up Fortnite.
As Fortnite conquers the royal family, new battles emerge in the world of role-playing games
NewZoo’s investigations looked at more than just a game of firearms, of course. Shooter is clearly a Titan in the modern gaming scene, but that doesn’t mean there are no challengers.
A little slow pace – role-playing games – is increasing (thank you, IGN). A NewZoo survey claims RPGs are up from 9% playtime slots to 13%. And in that genre, things aren’t too centralized in some kind of game.
Here is a kind of “Big Five.” Baldur’sGate 3, Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy, Honkai: Star Rail, and Starfield all hold different grips in the top spot, but they all only make up 18% of RPG playtime.
The role-playing game is doing very well, but at this point no one is the king of the king. Just as Fortnite conquered the royal family of battles he conquered. The Gate of Baldur has proven it has the power to stay, but Starfield tells us that there is absolutely none in that league.
Perhaps if something takes that crown, the game may still be waiting for release date. Fortnite certainly wasn’t the original Battle Royale, but it didn’t stop it from rising.
So, if you’re a fan of role-playing games, there may be something very special on the far horizon. Studios and publishers will pour this kind of data into them to get ideas for their next big project. If the RPG is built on fertile ground, they can begin cultivation.
