"Fortnite is down bad on Twitch": Why streamers are turning away from the game at an unprecedented rate, explains NRG Aussie

Fortnite may be one of the most popular battle royale games at the moment, but according to Shaun Cochrane aka NRG Aussie, the game is "down bad on Twitch".

While this could be considered somewhat opinionated, the metrics don't lie. Over time, Fortnite has gone from being one of the most viewed games on Twitch to currently being placed 11th. As of October 2021, the game has so far garnered only 46,275,501 viewer hours.

Although those numbers may seem astronomical, when compared to League of Legends' 148,646,705 viewer hours, it's easy to see why Fortnite has been slipping down the ranks on the streaming platform.

Despite its apparent fall from grace, the game is still kicking about with enough life to "ratio" the naysayers and netizens asking: "is Fortnite Dead?" Now, while the game may not be dead, over time, content creators have indeed stopped streaming on Twitch.

While the reasons can be narrowed down to the skill gap, sweaty players, and difficulty mastering how to build, there's more at play here as NRG Aussie explains why Fortnite has become less popular on Twitch.

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The Fortnite meta has shifted, and so have the content creators

According to NRG Aussie, the "blood and guts" of Fortnite on Twitch has shifted from content creation to competitive. Every now and then, giants of the community such as Nick "Nick Eh 30" Amyoony, Josue Sway aka FaZe Sway, and others can be seen streaming on the platform.

As stated by Shaun, the bulk of the streams are indeed competitive in nature, or played in lobbies with players that rank high up in the food chain. Suffice to say, casual gameplay for the most part does not exist on Twitch when it comes to Fortnite. Youtube, on the other hand, is teeming with life.

Unlike Twitch, which focuses on livestreams and competitive matches for the most part, on YouTube, content creators are booming. With the recent introduction of #shorts, millions of views are being raked in effortlessly.

Here's a small table displaying some metrics:

Name	Avg. Monthly views	Avg. Monthly subs
Sypher PK Shorts	25,370,000	23,000
T5G Shorts	2,679,100	10,300
Lachlan Shorts	38,287,500	87,000

To put this into perspective, even though the content creators mentioned in the table above have a very active YouTube channel, they still made a separate channel for short-form content. These are just a few that have dedicated channels at the moment, aside from the majority of creators who have shifted to this meta.

Additionally, for content creators, it has always been about supply and demand. If their audience is not into the current content being created, alternatives have to be found. In this case, most consumers shifted away from wanting long gameplay videos to short-form videos that could be enjoyed in less than a minute or within a few minutes.

So while Fortnite streaming on Twitch is "dead" indeed for the most part, aside from competitive and semi-pro levels, content on YouTube is flowing like Chug Splashes into Slurpy Swamp from the Chug Factory.

Nonetheless, despite content creators finding their niche on YouTube, seeing Fortnite not even make it to the top 10 on Twitch is rather concerning. If the game loses popularity on one of the largest streaming platforms currently available, future Seasons and Chapters could lose a lot of visibility.

Despite the Metaverse and non-stop collaborations that take place, the game somehow needs to reclaim its place on Twitch. Hopefully, Epic Games has a plan in mind to rectify this problem sooner rather than later