It’s been just over a week since Fortnite came back online following a two-day, black hole-induced hiatus. But the event, which ushered in the game’s eleventh season and its all-new redesigned map, was one of the biggest singular online gaming events to date — with more than 7 million concurrent viewers across Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.
Fortnite’s black hole event broke Twitch and Twitter viewing records
More than 7 million people watched across social platforms
More than 7 million people watched across social platforms
Image: Epic Games
is a Senior Producer on Decoder. Previously, he reported on the technology and gaming industries for more than a decade.
Epic Games tells The Verge that the black hole event, officially called “The End,” amassed record-breaking viewership on Twitter and Twitch. It also clocked in as one of the most viewed YouTube gaming events ever, although far from the biggest live event on that platform. (Live Coachella performances from Beyonce and other more mainstream events handily have it beat.)
On Twitch, more than 1.7 million people were viewing either the official Fortnite stream or streams from popular creators. That’s “the platform’s peak concurrent record on a single game category,” Epic says.
On Twitter, the black hole event was the “most viewed gaming event on Twitter, with 50.7 million minutes watched and 42.8 million views.” Epic says it peaked at 1.4 million concurrent viewers. On YouTube, far and away the largest of the three platforms, Fortnite black hole viewership hit 4.3 million concurrent viewers across all channels. The company is not sharing how many players tuned in for the live event in-game, although that figure may be revealed at some point in the future.
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