Fortnite to celebrate 350m players with massive virtual party

World's most popular video game to celebrate launch of new party mode with live event featuring Deadmau5 and Steve Aoki

Fortnite developer Epic Games has announced that the game now has 350 million registered players. In a tweet published on Wednesday, the company also revealed that, during April, the online shooter was played for 3.2bn hours - a tally that is likely to have been boosted by global coronavirus lockdown measures.

Now well into its third year of existence, Fortnite is continuing to attract a massive global audience, despite several newer rivals in the battle royale genre, including Apex Legends from Electronic Arts and a new Call of Duty mode, Warzone. Over time the game experience has constantly evolved and expanded, from a defensive shooter in which players fended off zombies, to the wildly popular competitive battle royale mode, to more recent modes and events that focus on building things, socialising online with other players, or attending one-off performances. Last month, one such series of in-game live events featuring rapper Travis Scott attracted more than 12 million spectators.