It only took 20 minutes for Fortnite OG to pass 1 million players

By Patrick Hearn Published December 6, 2024

Fortnite's original map appears on a blue background. — Epic Games

Fortnite OG isn’t exactly a new mode — it’s come and gone several times before. What makes today’s rollout special is that Fortnite OG is here to stay, and it’s news that has delighted a lot of fans. Players have flocked back to Fortnite to play the nostalgia-riddled modes they remember.

In fact, within a mere 20 minutes of release, Fortnite OG had more than 1 million concurrent players in regular Fortnite and another 270,000 in Zero Build, Polygon reports. For context, that’s about 1,822 times the maximum number of players Concord saw. Fortnite has always been a force of nature, but it has recently seen a surge of gamers like never before. As of right now, as we write this story, the game has 3,383,844 players, with its all-time high peak — yes, of any of the previous years — coming just five days ago with a whopping 14 million concurrent players.

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It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, though. Introducing Fortnite OG back into the playlist rotation always resulted in a surge of players, with 44.7 million fans playing throughout the course of the day. Whether the population boost will continue is anyone’s guess. Epic Games should take this opportunity to examine what players love about Fortnite OG and determine why it brings in so many people, and consider which — if any — of the more modern changes have driven older fans away.

Fortnite at recommended settings — Jon Martindale / Digital Trends

Right now, Fortnite OG has gone all the way back to the start of the game, with the original map and weapon loadout from 2017. Remember, that’s back before Tilted Towers. It consists of the following locales:

Anarchy Acres
Dusty Depot
Fatal Fields
Flush Factory
Greasy Grove
Lonely Lodge
Moisty Mire
Pleasant Park
Retail Row
Salty Springs
Tomato Town
Wailing Woods

And as for weapons, these are just some of what will be in this game mode. Others might be on the way — Epic Games has been cryptic about what to expect.

Assault Rifle
Burst Assault Rifle
Scoped Assault Rifle
Pump Shotgun
Tactical Shotgun
Pistol
Revolver
Submachine Gun
Tactical Machine Gun
Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle
Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle
Grenade Launcher
Rocket Launcher
Damage Trap
Ceiling Zapper
Wall Dynamo

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