There was more to Fortnite's release than meets the eye. Technically, Fortnite didn't leave Early Access until 2020, and the battle royale mode didn't arrive until well after the game's original release.

Originally, Fortnite was intended to be a survival tower defense game. Fortnite: Save the World was supposed to be the concept for the game. Fortnite first entered the battle royale arena when battle royales were becoming more popular. Games like PUBG, H1Z1, and others experimented with the concept and gained a following for what was essentially a new genre.

Fortnite entered early access on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, and Mac on July 21, 2017 for pre-orderers, and on July 25, 2017 for everyone else. On September 26, 2017, Epic Games released Fortnite’s battle royale mode. The iPhone version was released on March 12, 2018. While these dates may seem insignificant, the release of Fortnite on so many consoles at once made it attractive to players, as the likes of PUBG and H1Z1 focused on PC. One of the biggest changes in September 2018 was the addition of cross-play, which was nearly unheard of in gaming at the time.

NICKMERCS, SypherPK, Myth, Tfue, and Ninja have all played Fortnite since its release, all of which have become synonymous with the game. The other streamers have moved on to Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and other games. While Ninja has gone back and forth, only SypherPK has stayed true to the game that launched their career.