Fortnite: Younger players reportedly moving on to Call of Duty: Warzone

Fortnite has just recently celebrated its third anniversary, but the game appears to be going through a rough patch. A recent survey of 9,800 teens has revealed that Fortnite has been losing traction with this vital demographic, being supplanted by Call of Duty: Warzone instead.

How popular has Fortnite been with teenage players?

Most of the current best Fortnite players are either teens themselves, or were teens when they began playing, with last year’s Fortnite World Cup winner being just 16 when he took home the trophy. Fortnite is a young person’s game, that much is sure, and so it is important to keep a watch on how this demographic moves around.

In 2019, the Taking Stock with Teens survey found that 53% of teens played Fortnite, but that number is down to just 37% now. Instead, 62% of teens surveyed say they play Call of Duty. For some reason or another, either due to a natural trickle effect or poorly received alterations to the game, younger gamers would rather play Call of Duty than Fortnite.

Am I capping or just fortnite is a dead game?

— staticxxPH (@ed150n16) October 3, 2020

Differences in strategies between Call of Duty and Fortnite

Part of what makes this surprising is how Fortnite and Call of Duty have historically differed in their approach towards cultivating a playerbase. Fortnite seems to prefer to drip-feed content over a prolonged period of time, with major updates every few months and weekly updates in between.

Call of Duty, inversely, used to provide a very stable environment and untouched multiplayer environment with the occasional DLC. Of course, Call of Duty: Warzone has had a lot more fine tuning than the classic titles like Modern Warfare. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see that Call of Duty uses a finer touch, rather than inundating players with new content every week.

I keep giving Fortnite chances because I love the game but MAN I'm just let down every single time. Its so bad

— Jeaky (@Jeaky_) October 5, 2020

Fortnite loses access to a large portion of its playerbase

Another consideration that must be accounted for is the fact that Fortnite is no longer playable on iOS devices. This is important because this same survey found that an incredibly high number of teens used iPhones (86%), while even more expect their next phone to be an iPhone (89%). While it is possible that many teens who play Fortnite do so on a device other than an iPhone, it appears that the feud between Epic and Apple has had little to no impact on most teens’ decision to get an iPhone.