There is a pub in the UK called The Warehouse that is helping make video games more of a communal activity. Attendees are promised a £30 bar tab (the equivalent of about $42 USD) if they can win a round of Fortnite on a big projector, with the whole crowd watching.
Fortnite has surmounted quick success, being one of the most accessible battle royales apart from PUBG, and conveniently free to play. Last week, rapper Drake took to Twitch to play the game alongside streamer Ninja, which eventually drew in the most traffic the website had ever seen. It’s safe to say that Fortnite a mainstream success, so choosing this as the game to beat will certainly draw in fair share of spectators. In an interview with Eurogamer, manager Alex Cole states that the promotion has been pretty popular, and has been going for nearly three weeks. He’s made it clear that there haven’t been many winners, which doesn’t come to a surprise considering claiming a victory royale is never a walk in the park, especially if players have been drinking. Out of around 300 games, only two have won thus far.
The pub also offers attendees to play Rocket League and FIFA, though Fortnite is the only game attached with a prize. As far as Cole is aware, there aren’t other bars offering these kinds of events, which is likely to change considering the accessibility and traffic events like these bring. Cole also stated that it became much more popular than he assume it’d ever be, further cementing how popular Fortnite has grown in the short times its been around.
Not only do battle royales seem like they’ll stay, but it seems being good at them can result in a lot more than mere bragging rights.