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Written by David Shelby
on December 04, 2018

To paraphrase no one’s favorite “Mad Max” movie:

One hundred men enter! One man leaves!

The Rise of Battle Royale Games

In recent years, the Battle Royale-style game has taken the world by storm. Drawing from fiction by Koushun Takami and Suzanne Collins, these games involve many players entering a confined location and fighting until only one player remains.

Many Battle Royale games have major esports markets, and other games have plans to integrate aspects of the format. As their popularity explodes, these games could become an incredibly important genre in esports, both nationally and worldwide.

Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG) by developer Bluehole currently reigns supreme among BR games played on the professional level. Its world championship game reached over sixty million viewers, earning its place among the top dogs of the esports such as League of Legends and Overwatch. By contrast, Epic Games’ Fortnite isn’t quite as big as its predecessor (on the esport level), but still manages to draw quite a crowd, breaking two million on at least one occasion. Epic has plans in place to grow its esports league in the coming years, setting aside absurd amounts of money for prize pools.

Why Isn't Fortnite A Bigger Esports Game?

Considering Fortnite has become a household name in America, it may seem strange that its numbers aren’t the highest. The reason? China, where the game has very low viewership. Considering that Chinese viewers make up about 90 percent of most esports viewership, there’s no doubt that China can make or break a game in terms of popularity.  Although the Chinese right now seem totally indifferent to this current sensation that’s sweeping our nation, this was also the case in the early days of League of Legends, a game that is not only massively popular in China now, but a game that also saw a Chinese victor in the most recent world championship.

Suffice it to say, things could change drastically sooner or later.

While PUBG and Fortnite are currently the most popular Battle Royale games, plenty of others exist, and there remains a chance they could gain an audience of their own and cut out their share of the market. H1Z1, probably the only other BR game that could be considered an esport, has dwindled recently in players and viewers alike. Though the game was a powerhouse in its heyday, it’s since fallen into disuse, losing almost all of its players and viewers alike.

Up-and-Coming Battle Royale Games

While this game may be a lost cause, others currently in early access have much better chances. Tencent, the Chinese distributor of PUBG, has launched its own BR game called Ring of Elysium, a game that can be summarized as PUBG with an obscene amount of snow. Even though it hasn’t yet been released, its connection to China bodes well for it already.

Last Tide on SteamThere are also other early access games that may be worth paying attention to going forward, such as Last Tide (an underwater BR with sharks) and Fear the Wolves (a BR set in Chernobyl with the goal being escape rather than battle). Interesting as these games may seem, as long as they remain in early access, they remain wrapped in uncertainty, especially since it’s not unheard of for a game to never leave this phase.

On the subject of early access, existing games and franchises are currently developing their own Battle Royale formats, such as Battlerite and Dying Light 2. Neither of these games are huge in the esports scene, with Battlerite being minuscule in viewership and Dying Light not having a professional competitive scene at all, but if their BR formats take off, they may see a surge in popularity. A more well-known title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, has already launched a BR mode called Blackout, which has thus far been met with positive reception from the player base. Dominant as Activision’s first-person shooter may be, this could take it to new heights.

 

The Battle Royale format has no guarantee to succeed, and we already have existing examples of it failing. The Culling by developer Xaviant managed to fill a niche among BR games with complex crafting mechanics, but its sequel, The Culling 2, did away with that and drove away its player base. While this may be our best example of a BR game catastrophically failing, there may be many more as time goes on.

Is the Market Over-Saturated?

Throughout 2017 and 2018, BR’s have come a dime a dozen, and there are even more coming soon. Though the games are almost always free to play, a player’s time is just as finite as his or her money, and therefore not even the most die-hard BR fans can be expected to play them all. Furthermore, with a game meant to be played exclusively online, a low player base can make queues for games outrageously long. Since this feature will only serve to hemorrhage players rather than gain them, many BR games currently in early access are most likely dead in the water already.

Though I and many others have sung this genre’s praises, anticipating it might all but rule the world, there’s another potential danger to the Battle Royale craze: and that is, the very nature of crazes. With no certainty as to what could happen in the future, there’s no telling if BR games might wind up being a flash in the pan, as it were. While they may be inescapable in the gaming world right now, five years from now this may no longer be the case. While neither I nor anyone else has any way to prove that this will happen, it’s worth bearing in mind.

Can Battle Royale Last In Esports?

There are also valid reasons to be concerned about a Battle Royale’s viability as an esport.

From a player’s perspective, competitive gamers absolutely despise randomness. The more random elements a game features, the less playable it becomes on the competitive stage. (This is why Mario Kart isn’t an esport.) While players may have this concern, there are also issues for spectators. With so many players involved on one map, anywhere between 50 and 100 to be precise, it can be incredibly difficult to determine which one to follow. Furthermore, since the game can create punishing, occasionally unfair scenarios, most competitive events offer points to the players as opposed to simply giving the top prize to the last man standing. The problem comes when these scoring systems become convoluted and difficult for players to understand. It doesn’t matter if your favorite player or team wins a game if you haven’t the slightest idea how they did it.

This is how controllers are broken 

That’s not to say that Battle Royale games aren’t inherently appealing. While the craziness and random scenarios tend to make for a not-so-skill-based game, it’s nothing if not fun, both to play and to watch. Although players may vary greatly in skill, it’s truly anyone’s game from the first drop to the final showdown. No one can say where the Battle Royale will find itself in the coming years, but for right now all that matters is that these games bring joy to millions of people. One might as well get a piece of the action while the getting is good.

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