Battle Royale: Rising to The Top

In the past few months, Battle Royale has taken over the gaming industry. Fortnite and PlayerUnkown’s Battlegrounds(PUBG) being the most popular of the gaming genre. In this game mode, 100 people parachute onto an island. They then pick up or “loot” items from various buildings and chests, thus increasing their chances of survival against the other 99 players alive. The genre takes its origins from the 2000 movie “Battle Royale”. It is set in Japan, and every year, the government picks some people that are to be dropped onto an island with weapons to kill each other.

Fornite and PUBG have received high amounts of enthusiasm and acceptance from the gaming community, but why are these games so successful?

Fast Paced but Relaxing

Battle Royale is generally fast-paced; everyone is scrambling to pick up guns and kill each other. However, in the middle game, people are generally more passive and try to hide. Jason P., a 9th grader, says that, “I prefer Fornite over other games because of its fast-paced action but also the middle game, where I can relax a bit and take the stress out of my eyes.” Because of this, he thinks that these games are more for casual gamers; there is no need to practice and they are enjoyable and fun.

Open to All Platforms

Although PUBG and Fortnite were originally made for the PC and Console platforms only, after a few months, both publishers released a mobile version of the game. This highly contributed to their player base, as smartphones are portable and most people own one. This can often be seen in the streets of Guangzhou itself. When walking around malls or going on the metro, I frequently see people on their phones playing some sort of mobile PUBG.

Little to No Repetition

In Battle Royale, there are never any repeating situations. Let’s take PUBG for instance, even if you drop into the same place every time, there will always be different players, different loot, and different situations. There may be no people at that place, meaning that you will have very good loot, or there may be tons of people there, meaning that you will be probably dead. This unpredictable factor of the game mode is what makes it interesting and fun.

In conclusion, Battle Royale is new and has an interesting game mode. Fortnite and PUBG are some great examples of how Battle Royale has encaptured a huge audience.