It was over two years ago now when Fortnite first pushed hard to branch out their availability of game modes and expand their platform to other types of gaming. As part of this metaverse explosion, we got the Fortnite Festival mode, a new rhythm game mode developed by Harmonix, the team behind both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. However, like both of these iconic names in rhythm gaming, the future of Fortnite Festival is starting to look uncertain.
The most recent Fortnite Festival season saw Chappell Roan take the main stage, and despite being a hugely popular artist with an immense response to her release into the battle royale, the Fortnite Festival Main Stage mode is seeing record low player counts for season launches – a trend we’ve seen for more than a year. For example, Hatsune Miku’s launch into Fortnite saw a peak 56,000 players simultaneously rock out in the game mode back in January last year, whilst April’s Sabrina Carpenter release dropped down to 31,000 players, even with Sabrina being a more popular global artist. The trend continues still, as the latest Festival season hit a peak of only 13,000 players.
It seems Epic Games are aware of this underperformance, and might even be encouraging it somewhat, as they’ve been stripping back the Fortnite Festival branding from its recent promotional material. Whilst the usual new Jam Track additions and Festival Icon reveals come with Fortnite Festival logos, fans have noticed they stopped using the word ‘Festival‘ late last month. Now, only the Fortnite logo remains on the promotional artwork for the latest Jam Track releases, and for Chappell Roan’s recent reveal too.
With Fortnite adding an option to listen to your Jam Tracks in the battle royale mode outside of Fortnite Festival, along with the scaling down of Festival branding and falling player counts, things aren’t looking bright for the music mode. For more Fortnite updates and other breaking gaming news, check back often to GameObserver.
