Like it or not, you have to really respect the product execution with Fortnite. Even with hiccups (and there have been and continue to be hiccups) the speed and execution is honestly nothing short of breathtaking.
IMHO there have been 9 key factors to Fortnite's success:
1. They didn't go for a "military" motif (think Call of Duty, PUBG, etc). Instead they chose whimsy, basically. This gives almost limitless possibilities for skins and in-game themes. Instead of just changing the colour of weapons and combat fatigues, you can be a banana (the article mentions this), John Wick, Marshmello, a chicken (the Tender Defender, which is just an amazing name) and so on. This provides an endless supply of skins people can buy. They also (wisely) chose to have limited customization slots (from memory, glider, trails, skin, back bling, harvester and weapons rather than, say, left boot, right boot, left leg, right leg, etc).
2. Further to (1), this means pretty much anything can be put in the game and it "fits". Earlier this year, Sea of Thieves kind of blew up on Twitch for a couple of months. Next Fortnite season there were pirates, a pirate ship, cannons you could shoot yourself across the map with, etc. Coincidence? I think not.
3. There is only one map. I saw PUBG added new maps. Huge mistake. HUGE. This just splits the player base. It meant (in PUBG at least) people would back out if they didn't get on the map they wanted. The alternative of selecting map still splits the player base. Instead, Fortnite has one map that constantly changes.
4. Another way to keep things fresh: LTMs. The Floor is Lava is a relatively recent example of this.
5. The first FPSs had static maps. Think CSGO or Rainbow 6 as recent(ish) examples. This leads to players who know the map camping a spot where they can kill you with a pixel shot to the big toe when you walk by. Then came destructible environments, which seem like a good idea, but they quickly devolve into static maps as the environment is destroyed. Fortnite has both destructible elements and the ability to build. The parallels to Minecraft are apt. This was a real innovation in a shooter.
6. It being free-to-play with purchases being purely cosmetic so it's not a pay-to-win game ("pay-to-flex" is probably a good way to describe what Fortnite is).
7. You can't just log on and buy "everything". There are challenges. Items are available only for a limited time. Certain items are thus rare (eg the original Skull Trooper). It really encourages constant play.
8. The creator code program so people (ie streamers) would push the item shop.
9. It's a game that's entertaining to watch and isn't too short. Personally I've watched a lot on Twitch and I don't even play the game. How nuts is that?
Something will eventually come along to replace Fortnite. I'm not sure this will happen anytime soon. I also suspect you won't see something that so singularly occupies mindshare like Fortnite so a long time to come.
Well, maybe a huge mistake from a business, milk-the-cow-dry standpoint. But from a gameplay perspective, there's a fair number of players who enjoy playing on multiple maps and wouldn't keep playing a game with a single map.
A case in point being myself and my close group of friends, who still play many hours of PUBG every week and also buy the season passes. We don't play Fortnite or Apex Legends, which only have one map (among many other differences).
There's plenty of room for more than one way of managing a large multiplayer game, thankfully. I'd dread a future where game-makers only try to optimize for financial success and are afraid of ailenating _any_ part of their customer base. Thankfully, there seems to be a point where things shift back out of equilibrium when too many game companies try to do this. Fortnite actually being a very good example.
The map piece is interesting because I've observed that with most major fps games out there. With battlefield it's really bad because it isn't across just maps but game versions.
So you have people who truly loved one setting stick to it till nobody plays any more, but they are then not part of the general population and particularly any new IAP (although recent developments seem like they are trying to fix that).
I think being kid friendly and stream friendly really helped. A lot of kids transitioned to it from Minecraft, so the building aspect of the game also contributed.
I wonder how well it would have done without YouTube or Twitch.
IMHO there have been 9 key factors to Fortnite's success:
1. They didn't go for a "military" motif (think Call of Duty, PUBG, etc). Instead they chose whimsy, basically. This gives almost limitless possibilities for skins and in-game themes. Instead of just changing the colour of weapons and combat fatigues, you can be a banana (the article mentions this), John Wick, Marshmello, a chicken (the Tender Defender, which is just an amazing name) and so on. This provides an endless supply of skins people can buy. They also (wisely) chose to have limited customization slots (from memory, glider, trails, skin, back bling, harvester and weapons rather than, say, left boot, right boot, left leg, right leg, etc).
2. Further to (1), this means pretty much anything can be put in the game and it "fits". Earlier this year, Sea of Thieves kind of blew up on Twitch for a couple of months. Next Fortnite season there were pirates, a pirate ship, cannons you could shoot yourself across the map with, etc. Coincidence? I think not.
3. There is only one map. I saw PUBG added new maps. Huge mistake. HUGE. This just splits the player base. It meant (in PUBG at least) people would back out if they didn't get on the map they wanted. The alternative of selecting map still splits the player base. Instead, Fortnite has one map that constantly changes.
4. Another way to keep things fresh: LTMs. The Floor is Lava is a relatively recent example of this.
5. The first FPSs had static maps. Think CSGO or Rainbow 6 as recent(ish) examples. This leads to players who know the map camping a spot where they can kill you with a pixel shot to the big toe when you walk by. Then came destructible environments, which seem like a good idea, but they quickly devolve into static maps as the environment is destroyed. Fortnite has both destructible elements and the ability to build. The parallels to Minecraft are apt. This was a real innovation in a shooter.
6. It being free-to-play with purchases being purely cosmetic so it's not a pay-to-win game ("pay-to-flex" is probably a good way to describe what Fortnite is).
7. You can't just log on and buy "everything". There are challenges. Items are available only for a limited time. Certain items are thus rare (eg the original Skull Trooper). It really encourages constant play.
8. The creator code program so people (ie streamers) would push the item shop.
9. It's a game that's entertaining to watch and isn't too short. Personally I've watched a lot on Twitch and I don't even play the game. How nuts is that?
Something will eventually come along to replace Fortnite. I'm not sure this will happen anytime soon. I also suspect you won't see something that so singularly occupies mindshare like Fortnite so a long time to come.