Millions flock to Fortnite as its new season takes the game back to Chapter 1

Players are flocking to Fortnite in record numbers coinciding with the launch of the game’s latest season, Fortnite OG.

Launched on Friday and running until December 2, 2023, the month-long season promises to take fans of Epic’s battle royale on a trip down memory lane.

“Throughout Fortnite OG, each major update will bring a different phase of Battle Royale’s past, starting with Chapter 1 Season 5,” Epic said.

“That means Shopping Carts, ATKs, the Assault Rifle, Pump Shotgun, and more in both Battle Royale and Zero Build!”

The Fortnite map has reverted to the Chapter 1 island, meaning players will be able to battle it out across returning points of interest including Tilted Towers, Risky Reels, Greasy Grove and Loot Lake.

The season has got off to a spectacular start. Within the first few hours of launch, Fortnite had over 3.9 million concurrent players, according to the third-party tracker Fortnite.GG.

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That’s the highest total since it began recording Fortnite’s player count in April, beating out the previous peak of over 2.8 million players when the game’s last season, Chapter 4: Season 4, launched in late August.

Epic increased the price of Fortnite V-Bucks and some real money content packs last week in some countries, including the US and most of Europe.