Fortnite Is Trying To Be Like Roblox (& I'm Convinced It's Going To Work)

Fortnite Is Trying To Be Like Roblox (& I’m Convinced It’s Going To Work)


Fortnite is best known for its fun gameplay, striking style, and massive collection of skin designs. In recent years, though, it’s become so much more than just a battle royale game with a battle pass. As Creative Mode has grown and evolved over the years, so has the community of creators that surrounds it. What was once a simple but addictive game has now expanded beyond its own parameters.




There is now a thriving community of Islands, game experiences made by fans who take Fortnite’s assets and apply them in unique and creative ways. The Creative Mode side of the game has grown so large, in fact, that companies have taken an interest and begun to make their own sponsored experiences. The landscape of Fortnite has been slowly shifting and transforming, and it’s looking more and more like Roblox with each passing day. And I, for one, think it’s the best decision for the franchise.


How Fortnite Has Changed Over The Years

The Battle Royale Game Has Been Shifting Before Our Very Eyes

In 2018, Fortnite launched Creative Mode, which allowed players to create their own game modes known as Islands, experiences that deviated from the main game. These could be anything, from new versions of existing Fortnite maps to entirely new and unique game modes.


Related

LEGO Fortnite: Lost Isles – How To Find & Upgrade The NaNa Village

If you want to live out your best life as a pirate in a tropical paradise, you should find the NaNa Village in Lego Fortnite as quickly as you can.

Creative Mode lurked in the background of the game for the first five or so years, existing but not really thriving. That is, until Creative 2.0 was introduced in 2023. This new version of Creative Mode revealed the standalone Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which gave Fortnite creators the power of the Unreal 5 engine combined with Fortnite assets.

At around the same time, Fortnite launched its LEGO branch and Festival Mode. These were still within the confines of the Fortnite universe, but showed how Creative 2.0 could be used to build practically anything on the bones of the game. This was when community creators began to take note, and the Islands creation community exploded.


Why Fortnite Is Starting To Look Like Roblox

It’s Part Of A Push To Appeal To A Younger Audience

Giving players the power to create whatever they want with Fortnite assets is a risky idea, and there surely is a lot of content that can be ignored in the marketplace. But there are also some interesting creations among the Islands that might not be as popular as the main game but are drawing in sizable audiences. And there’s a huge range of games across many genres, including action, roleplaying, horror, and more.

Fortnite character on a Dirt Bike

Related

Fortnite Dirt Bike Guide (Locations, Stunts, & Trick Points)

Fortnite’s Dirt Bikes are a great way to travel around the island. Players can also perform tricks and jumps to complete a quest for Battle Pass XP.


Among these are plenty of games that look remarkably familiar to Roblox players. There are obbies galore, team battles, tycoons, deathruns, and even an entire category of “bed wars.” Some Fortnite games are literal recreations of popular Roblox games, sometimes copied down to the map designs, as can be seen in this side-by-side comparison of similar games on both engines by Sturdy on YouTube.

The games aren’t the only way that the two titlres are remarkably similar. Both Roblox and Fortnite have become online social gathering places, hubs for young people to hang out, play, and even watch concerts. Celebrity appearances have become the norm in the games, with the likes of Marshmello, Ariana Grande, and Eminem holding concerts in Fortnite and David Guetta, Twenty One Pilots, Lizzo, and Lil Nas X performing in Roblox.


All these similarities are no accident. Fortnite is very deliberately taking the same steps that Roblox took, with the same goal: reach a young audience of current and future financial decision-makers. Kids are the world’s largest potential buying power today, and they’re no longer reachable by traditional advertising methods like TV ads. I believe that Fortnite will continue to grow its Creative side to rival Roblox because that’s where the money is.

What The Future Of Fortnite Will Look Like

We Can Expect Fortnite And Roblox To Continue Moving In The Same Direction


Besides official collab skins and live events, companies and brands have started making experiences on Roblox and Fortnite to expand their reach to younger audiences. Creating experiences in the “metaverse” as the marketing ad-speak calls it, is the next exciting big step for brands in their advertising campaigns. Some brands make sense on two platforms whose main audiences are kids, like Timberlands and Doritos, while others are a little more unusual, like Honda and Oral-B.

Brookhaven RP, Adopt Me!, and LifeTogether RP.

Related

20 Best Role-Playing Games on Roblox

Gamers looking for an escape into a new reality need only to hop over to Roblox, where they can play their best role-playing games.

But looking a little closer, it begins to make sense why kids are being shown car brands. When TV ads were the main source of advertising, many advertisers became household names long before kids had any buying power for big purchases like cars. Now, the best way to achieve the same effect is by reaching these kids through games.


The difference is that ads didn’t necessarily need to be good when they were on TV. People had to watch them no matter what, since they were unskippable (except when you ran to grab a snack during the commercial break). All brands had to do was slap a catchy jingle on the ad and plant the seed of knowledge for future car owners.

The sponsored games on Roblox and Fortnite are different because players have to choose to engage with them. And to get a kid to play a video game about toothbrushes, it has to be good. Roblox is fairly limited in its scope because its entire community and audience base is centered around little kids. Although there are plenty of cool experiences, including some actually scary horror games on Roblox, the platform is primarily played by much younger kids.


Fortnite has a leg up when it comes to its reach. According to Esports, 62.7% of Fortnite players are between the ages of 18 and 24, and 22.5% are 25-43. In comparison, 58% of Roblox players are under the age of 16, with only 18% over 25 years old, according to Backlinko. Thanks to this, games like the recent Gundam Fortnite experience have a chance to reach a much wider audience than Roblox could ever dream of.

As both games grow and evolve alongside each other, we can expect to continue seeing both moving in the same direction. Roblox may have been doing it for longer, but Fortnite has a leg up when it comes to reach. The title benefits immensely as new games arrive on the platform, which lets players have fun even as they learn all about the best car brand on the market and why they should buy it.

Fortnite will likely continue pushing the Creative Mode aspect of its franchise, even as it keeps selling skins and battle passes. Not only will it continue to look like Roblox, but it’s actually on the way to surpassing the master and becoming the best community-generated game maker on the market.


Sources: Sturdy/YouTube, eSports, Backlinko

Share your love

Related Posts