Fortnite players by the millions braved extended downtimes and 40-minute queues to kick off season two of Chapter Five with a bang, setting a new player count record for 2024 just hours after the update went live.
A peak of 5,152,863 players was recorded in the early afternoon of March 9 according to concurrent count tracker Fortnite.gg. The mark was reached almost 24 hours after the patch went live, with as many as three million players sitting in queues shortly after the servers went live.
The player peak is the highest recorded so far in 2024. The last time the five million mark was reached was in late December 2023 shortly after the Christmas weekend. There’s every chance the peak cracks five million again later today as more players boot up Fortnite as the weekend goes on.
It goes to show very little in gaming can compare to the start of a new Fortnite season. While this weekend’s update pales in comparison to the launch of LEGO Fortnite back in December or November’s epic The Big Bang event, it’s still an impressive number—especially given the delays players faced.
Originally, servers were supposed to be down for six hours, but a critical issue with the update was found by the Fortnite team, extending downtime by a further eight hours. Just as players were gearing up for the 3pm CT launch, yet another issue forced players to wait another six hours and redownload most of the Chapter Five season two update.
In total, the game was down for almost an entire day, but at around 9pm CT on March 10 the servers were opened and the queuing began. Players have since reported a few crashing issues, particularly on consoles, but otherwise, services have returned to normal.
Fortnite’s Chapter Five season wraps up in late May, leaving players plenty of time to try out the new content including new skins and items based around the Greek Gods.
Published: Mar 10, 2024 12:29 am