Due to our world’s fast-paced culture, it is a near guarantee that every few months, a game will begin to connect with a massive audience. Thanks to the rise of social media, word-of-mouth is more prevalent than ever, causing a simple game to expand into a pop culture phenomenon.

Taking Northlake by storm, Fortnite is the latest game to join the trend. Created by game publisher Epic Games, Fortnite involves one-hundred players dropping into a huge map in a winner-takes-all scenario, akin to the Hunger Games.

A game’s objective is to be a fun experience, and Fortnite absolutely exceeds at that; but many games are fun. How is it that Fortnite manages to surpass so many others and become such a massive topic amongst gamers, and especially at Northlake?

“I like that I can play with my friends, even though they call me terrible,” said junior Colby Desselles.

Possibly the most engaging pull Fortnite has is the ability to play with friends. The game offers three ways to play: “Solo” allows you to play a match by yourself, “Duo” allows you to team up with a friend, and “Squad” allows you to play with up to three other friends.

In order to investigate how Fortnite has become so popular, a poll was sent to every Northlake student in ninth-through-twelfth grade asking multiple questions relating to their approach to the game. Sixty-seven students answered.

According to the poll, approximately seventy-percent of students prefer to play with their friends as opposed to by their self, with forty-percent of those choosing to play in a group of four. The social aspect of Fortnite is a major aspect of its appeal.

Due to the intensity of a one-hundred player free-for-all, it can take many matches before someone actually has their first win, or as the game calls it, a “victory royale.” Players will quickly pull up Snapchat to capture their proud moment to share with all their friends, whether some of the friends may care or not.

Twenty-percent of the students polled have not even won their first match yet, and another sixteen-percent have only won once.

As compelling as a thrilling game can be, accessibility will always play a factor in how a game can reach its core audiences. Unlike previous phenomenons like Pokémon Go, Flappy Bird, and Candy Crush, Fortnite isn’t available on smartphones; Fortnite is a full-experience that requires either a console or a computer.

Fortnite is available for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

About sixty-five percent of Northlake players have the game on the Xbox One, while the other thirty-five-percent have the game on Playstation 4.

Friends can only connect with each other on the same system, so if one were interested in buying a system to play Fortnite with Northlake friends, an Xbox One will offer more friends to play with.

Even though Fortnite was released in July 25, 2017, the game has not decreased in its popularity. To date, the game is continually receiving free updates.