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Fortnite Has Surpassed Minecraft in YouTube Viewership and Its Revenue Keeps Soaring

by Stone Marshall | Oct 8, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Over the course of this week, the magnitude of Fortnite’s success has become more clear as YouTube shared the game’s record numbers. Epic’s game now holds the global record for the most videos uploaded in a single month (February 2018), the second spot when it comes to watchtime related to a videogame (again, as of February), and set the record for the single biggest gaming stream with Spanish YouTuber ElRubiusOMG reaching over 1.1 million concurrent viewers. Furthermore, last weekend over a hundred creators joined a massive Battle Royale battle and all broadcast their play, resulting in over 42 million views combined.

Minecraft has been the dominant game on YouTube for a long time, but its views have been declining steadily since August 2017.

In the graph above, you can see how Fortnite soared over its Battle Royale competitors Clash Royale and PUBG in November last year when it reached 1 billion cumulative views on YouTube. In fact, the average month-to-month growth rate in the past six months has been measured at a mindblowing +97% (+151% from January to February 2018). Meanwhile, Clash Royale and PUBG are largely stagnant at this point.

Of course, none of this would matter much if somehow viewership didn’t translate into paying customers. But that’s not really the case here.

According to SuperData’s newly posted February 2018 digital games report, Fortnite Battle Royale ranked third on consoles and sixth on PC. It was the main driver behind the massive 359% Year-over-Year growth of the Free-to-Play console segment, it earned more “additional content revenue” than any other game except Call of Duty WWII and now boasts a higher MAU (Monthly Active Users) than Grand Theft Auto V. Furthermore, Fortnite doesn’t appear yet in the mobile charts but it’s a fair bet that it will do so soon after the game raked in over $1 million of in-app purchases three days after the launch of its iOS invite-only event.

This is perhaps the biggest comeback of all time in gaming when you consider that many thought Fortnite could be scrapped altogether up to a year ago or so, after a lengthy and silent development time. When it launched with the Save the World mode it didn’t make too much of a splash, either, but Epic’s ability to quickly follow up on PUBG’s success with a Battle Royale mode and to constantly update the game to provide more content and optimization were key factors in this spectacular rebirth.

It’s impossible to say whether Fortnite can keep up this unprecedented level of success, and for how long. Not even Epic could do that, particularly with big publishers like Activision rumored to be preparing their own triple-A takes on the Battle Royale genre. However, one thing is for sure: Epic has secured its future for a long time with this hit.

‘Fallout: New California’ Update Addresses “Game Breaks”

With Fallout: New California, New York, Miami, and the incredible Fallout 4: New Vegas projects coming down the pipeline, it's easy to see why there is so much excitement regarding these incredibly impressive feats. These ambitious fan projects continue to make headway to completion and into the hands of gamers.

With Fallout: New California, it's ready to rock and will be rolling out this October! But just because we have a release date doesn't mean there isn't still work to be done and in this instance, it's a few “minor game breaks” that the team addressed in their latest developer update.

“We did uncover a couple minor game breaks that just required switching the integer on a result from 3 to 5 and two issues where the objective was unclear at the very last battle,” began their most recent update.

“Normally the objective of a battle is to just shoot the bad guy til they die. This time the bad guys (plural, possibly 4 bad guys if you're really crazy and/or bad at lying) heal themselves faster than you can kill them. Your goal is to knock them off a spiral staircase under the jets of an awaiting nuclear missile.”

They added, “Because this is the final end of the mod only a few people have tested this, and it turns out I didn't communicate that objective very well. New Vegas's engine has a hard time dealing with routine game mechanics like, say, GRAVITY, so we worked out some bugs around these npcs teleporting around the map if they get up while falling and so on.

You can use a gun that pushes them like a street sweeper and deals absurd damage, or you can use a knockdown based weapon, or kill them and drag their bodies (using Z key) before they heal and wake up.”

The plan for the next week is to create a workaround for these recently revealed issues, which is perfect as they are still looking for a few more female voice actresses before the final project launches.

To read the entire tale of development, you can see the full post right here! As for the mod itself, it goes live this October 23 before it's locked in for good in December!

You can contact the author of this story on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy.

‘Minecraft’: How to Watch Minecon Earth 2018

by Stone Marshall | Oct 7, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Mojang’s annual Minecraft event called Minecon Earth 2018 is going on now with multiple ways for viewers to watch the stream.

An event for all things Minecraft, Minecon Earth is an event streamed globally that brings new information about the blocky builder game and features discussions and presentations from Mojang and the community. Previously announced to start today on September 29th, the Minecon Earth events are currently underway with announcements and community events already ongoing.

“Filmed live and beamed across the world via the internet!” the description of the event said. “It will be around 90 minutes long, packed with juicy Minecraft info, and will include pre and post show bits, as well as some community panels.”

No matter what device viewers are on b e it a phone, tablet, PC, or console, the Minecon Earth proceedings can be watched through multiple platforms. The easiest would undoubtedly be going straight to Minecraft’s site where it already has a Mixer stream set up to cover the event, but the streams can also be found elsewhere. The YouTube stream above is one example of where it can be watched, other options like Twitch and Facebook also shared on Minecraft’s site.

Big announcements are shared during Minecon Earth, so it’s worth paying attention to if you’re interested in Mojang’s game. Update Aquatic, the collection of underwater content that was just recently made available across all platforms, was discussed at length in last year’s Minecon Earth event, so it’s clear that Mojang saves big announcements for this time. It’s already shared one of those today with the reveal of Minecraft: Dungeons, a spinoff game that puts players deep in dungeons with up to four different players taking on enemies and bosses while searching for loot.

“It’s an all-new action-adventure game inspired by classic dungeon crawlers, where you’ll constantly discover new weapons and items that will help you defeat a ruthless swarm of new-and-nasty mobs,” Mojang’s Tom Stone said about the new Minecraft spinoff game. “You’ll fight or flee through canyons, swamps and – of course – mines.”

Minecraft’s Minecon Earth 2018 event is currently live and will continue to air until it reaches the end of its schedule shared by Mojang.

‘Minecraft’ Announces New Dungeon-Crawling Spinoff Game

Mojang announced a new Minecraft spin-off game called Minecraft: Dungeons that sends players crawling through dungeons in either a single-player or co-op experience.

Announced in the midst of Mojang and Microsoft’s Minecon Earth events, the game was revealed to be a project that’s being worked on by a team in Stockholm, Sweden, a team that has a “love of classic dungeon crawler games. Mojang offered some more information on the new spinoff game as well as the trailer above to detail what it involves.

“It’s an all-new action-adventure game inspired by classic dungeon crawlers, where you’ll constantly discover new weapons and items that will help you defeat a ruthless swarm of new-and-nasty mobs,” Mojang’s Tom Stone said in a Minecraft announcement post. “You’ll fight or flee through canyons, swamps and – of course – mines!”

Stone went on to explain that the game can be played solo or with three extra friends to bring the total up to four players in search of loot and what sounds like a climactic fight.

“You can brave the dungeons alone, or team up with friends. Up to four players can battle together through action-packed, treasure-stuffed, wildly varied levels, all in an epic quest to save the villagers and take down the evil Arch-Illager!”

The trailer shows that the four players can be outfitted with different weapons and armor to serve different purposes, an interesting shift from Minecraft’s tiered armor and weapon system where the rarer material is generally the best you can shoot for. Hammers, swords, magic, and other weapon combinations were spotted in the trailer to show some of the options players will have. With the trailer didn’t explicitly say so, it almost seems as though the players in the trailer are taking on more traditional dungeon-crawling roles like tank, mage, DPS, and possibly a supportive class, but it could be that Mojang simply outfitted the characters that way to show off gear diversity.

Additional details weren’t shared in the announcement post on Minecraft’s site, but it did say that Minecraft: Dungeons would be out sometime in 2019 for the PC with more updates coming soon.

Minecraft Team partners with Target for new merch and in-store events

by Stone Marshall | Oct 6, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Target is about to pack even more Minecraft-related products into its stores. The retailer and The Minecraft Team announced today that they are collaborating on merchandise and fan parties. More than 75 new Minecraft items are coming exclusively to the big-box chain.

Microsoft’s block-building game is nearly 10 years old. Over the last decade, it has attracted an audience from across a diverse spectrum. Target has locations in cities, colleges, and suburbs to reach those consumers. The companies plan to have products for every taste as well. You can get apparel like shirts and PJs. Fans will find a new Minecraft Lego set among other toys. You can even get Minecraft-branded furniture and bedding.

Minecraft party mode
Minecraft and Target parties feature a scavenger hunt and details about Grid Runners.

Minecraft parties are coming to Target on September 22. These events will feature beloved community creators from YouTube and Twitch. The event will also have an accompanying livestream. Viewers will learn details about upcoming Minecraft mode Grid Runners.

Attendees will get a chance to participate in a scavenger hunt and giveaways. And the store is sure to have all of the new merch on prominent display in case you brought your wallet.

Target says most of its stores are participating in the event. But do you want to double check if yours is? Enter your zip code here to find your nearest Target.

All of this excitement is leading into Minecon Earth. That fan event aims to bring Minecraft fans together around the world. The global gathering is happening September 29 at a Microsoft store near you. It will also stream online and feature a 90-minute Minecraft keynote with new details about changes and improvements coming to the game.

Target is also getting in on the Minecon Earth action. You can find Minecon Earth-themed products at the retailer beginning this month. So even if you don’t have a Microsoft sore, you can still get a T-shirt or collectible.

August 2018’s top 10 Minecraft Marketplace creations: Graduation day

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The Minecraft Marketplace kept some of its momentum from launching on Switch and its first Summer Sale. The unified version of Minecraft served up 373,361 downloads across Windows 10, mobile, Xbox, and Switch. While that’s nowhere near the 669,795 downloads from July, it’s still a big number for a month without a massive sale.

August was a relatively quiet month for Minecraft. The block-building phenomenon’s Summer Sale happened in July. Also, the Switch version launched in June. That introduced the Marketplace to an entirely new audience. As a result of the dearth of major events like those, you would expect a big decline. But downloads were only just below June’s 396,511.

But Minecraft has a lot going on right now. Target partnered with Microsoft and The Minecraft Team to bring a huge slate of new products to the retailer earlier this month. And this weekend, the global fan festival Minecon Earth is taking place. This is where the game’s biggest fanatics get together at Microsoft Stores around the world to celebrate the game. It’s also where Microsoft will have big new announcements.

That should keep interest high, and that could translate into Minecraft Marketplace sales.

Let’s get to the charts.

Top 10 most downloaded
10. Fright Night 13 10. Fright Night 13
Here’s the list:

City Life
Millionaire Mansions
Mineville Highschool
Zombie Apocalypse
Prison Escape
Mineville University Roleplay
Dinosaur Park
Castles & Dragons
Construction City
Fright Night 13
Top 10 highest grossing
10. Mutant Battle Arena 10. Mutant Battle Arena
Here’s the list:

City Life
Millionaire Mansions
Zombie Apocalypse
Prison Escape
Dinosaur Park
Castles & Dragons
Mineville Highschool
Construction City
City Builder Mash-up
Mutant Battle Arena
That’s the Marketplace report for the month. Check back in October for more!

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