The main distinction from others in the genre is the game's construction elements, letting players build walls, which can be later edited, obstacles, and other structures from collected resources to take cover from incoming fire or give one a strategic view advantage.

The Island's fixed layout includes several landmarks and locations (mostly named in an alliterative fashion, such as "Tilted Towers", "Pleasant Park", and "Retail Row") that are mostly ghost towns during matches, while a random distribution of weapons, shields, and other combat support features can be found either as "floor loot" or by searching chests scattered in buildings and other sites.

These are offered through a "Battle Pass", which features a number of tiers that players climb through by earning experience through playing the game or completing in-game objectives, called "Quests", while acquiring cosmetic rewards or other items in the process.

A preliminary competitive mode, Solo Showdown, ran for a limited time starting in May 2018, ranking players by their final placement in matches and rewarding the top-placing competitors with V-Bucks.

Fortnite Battle Royale has created a larger loose narrative that is exhibited through changes in the game map, which generally correlated to the start and end of the in-game season.

[29] Since then, other promotional content from other commercial properties, including cosmetic items and map features, has been available for limited periods in Fortnite, typically around the time of premieres or first broadcasts for these works.

These commercial properties have included Ralph Breaks the Internet,[30] John Wick,[31][32] Stranger Things,[33] Star Wars,[34] Birds of Prey,[35] The Matrix,[36] Cobra Kai,[37] and Family Guy,[38] among numerous others.

"[66] Fortnite had first been revealed by Epic Games in 2011, considered to be a combination of Minecraft and Left 4 Dead as four players would work together to scavenge resources to build fortifications, traps, weapons, and other objects to survive monster attacks.

With release in early access, the game featured its primary gameplay mode, "Save the World", where players in teams up to four would work cooperatively to survive and complete objectives on randomly generated maps.

[70][71] During the latter part of Fortnite's development, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was released in March 2017 on personal computers in early access, and quickly became a popular and successful game, becoming the defining example of the battle royale genre.

In mid 2017, Mustard, Sweeney, and two other executives were on their way in an Uber to talk to Disney in California to discuss opportunities, when they decided they would make a battle Royale game within Fortnite.

[72] According to Mustard, the Epic team "loved Battle Royale games like [Battlegrounds]", and explored how they could make a similar mode within Fortnite's engine.

[22] In those two months of development, Epic's plan was to include Battle Royale within the paid Fortnite game, and originally announced this approach publicly in early September 2017.

Incorporating the narrative elements had led the development team to plan out new ways to include them, such as the single-time events across all servers, or specialized single-player missions.

Tencent planned to spend up to US$15 million to help promote the game in China, set up eSports tournaments, and fight against copyright infringement and clones of Fortnite that have appeared in the country.

[111] The iOS version of Fortnite Battle Royale alone brought in an estimated US$1 million in microtransaction revenue within the first three days of in-app purchases being available, according to analysis firm Sensor Tower.

[113][114] Epic announced in May 2020 alongside its reveal of the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 that ports of Fortnite for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are planned to be available at the time of consoles' releases in late 2020.

[94][116] While Epic Games had expressed interest in having full cross-platform play across all available platforms, Sony's continued refusal to allow cross-play between the PlayStation 4 and other consoles rendered this impossible, according to Microsoft.

[128] Fortnite Battle Royale has been packaged as special bundles with both the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, each version providing redeemable codes for V-bucks and platform-unique customization options.

[138] The first Fortnite World Cup tournament was announced in February 2019, with qualifying rounds in April through June 2019, and the finals held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City from July 26–28, 2019.

[157] Michael Higham of Gamespot gave the game 8/10 and praised the "intuitive" building mechanics, "unexpected" challenges, "fresh" updates, though criticized its repetitive resource-gathering, map traversal and "bare" main towns.

"[159] Fortnite Battle Royale has become a phenomenon and has been compared by analysts to World of Warcraft and Minecraft for successfully drawing in people who do not usually play video games.

[194][195] Further, Epic has maintained frequent updates for the game, adding new weapons and in-game tools alongside limited-time events and longer-term narrative elements that help to further draw in players.

Netflix, in reporting its Q4 2018 results, stated that their competition is more with Fortnite, including streaming content related to the game, rather than rival television network stations like HBO.

[206][207] A number of celebrities and athletes have said they play Fortnite Battle Royale, such as Chance the Rapper, Joe Jonas, Finn Wolfhard, Roseanne Barr, and Norm Macdonald.

[229][230] Prince Harry, speaking about various influences of social media on children in April 2019, proposed a possible ban on Fortnite Battle Royale, saying, "The game shouldn't be allowed", and "It's created to addict.

[233] A separate class-action suit filed in California in February 2021 asserts that Epic knowingly "misleads and manipulates minors into handing over ever-increasing amounts of real money for virtual things" through its V-bucks system.

[238] While Fortnite has been successful in its monetization scheme, this approach using battle passes and rotating outfit availability induces players to continue to spend money in a "Keeping up with the Joneses"-type effect.

[269] A suit filed by choreographer Kyle Hanagami over his dance moves being used in Fortnite emotes was initially dismissed by a federal district court, but was overruled by the Ninth Circuit in November 2023.

[270] On August 13, 2020, Epic announced it was permanently discounting the price of V-bucks across all platforms by 20%, except for those purchased directly through the iOS App Store and Google Play storefronts.