Fortnite Revenue Plunged 48 Percent In January, The Apex Legends Effect?

Epic Games has had the most dominating video game on the market with Fortnite making vast sums of money for the developer. Recently, a new competitor has surfaced in the form of Apex Legends that is putting pressure on Fortnite to maintain its top spot in the gaming realm. Apex Legends launched, and within a week boasted 25 million players.

With Apex Legends being so popular, you might expect the game to cut into the revenue that Epic Games is generating. Well, a new report claims that online revenue for Fortnite dropped 48% in January compared to December. Analytics firm SuperData claims that decline happened before Apex Legends launched.

However, things aren't that bad in Epic's eyes; with December being the holiday season, it is historically a big spending month for games and online purchases. It would be expected for revenue to decline some as January rolls in. Fortnite still boasts 200 million players, and the numbers for February will give more of a glimpse into declining revenue for Fortnite compared to January.

SuperData's Joost van Dreunen notes that the decline in revenue could have to do with the short attention span of the casual gamer. Gamers are traditionally always out for the next big thing. He does admit that Fortnite has a stable audience and revenue for the stable audience continues to grow. Revenue year-over-year for Fortnite compared to January of 2018 was up a massive 85%.

Fortnite's success has made Epic Games the target of multiple lawsuits, mainly focusing on dance moves that Epic is accused of stealing and selling as emotes in the game. None of the emote suits have resulted in a loss in court for Epic so far as dance steps can't be copywritten according to U.S. law.