Fortnite’s new Treasure Hunters mini-season has already drawn in so many concurrent players that a queue has had to be implemented, and it’s not just because of One Piece.
Today marks the start of Fortnite’s new Treasure Hunters mini-season, which not only brings One Piece and A$AP Rocky to The Island but also treasure chests containing some surprisingly generous items. Easily the highlight of the season, though, is the new Pirate Ship token, which is very clearly Epic’s attempt to keep players from jumping over to GTA 6 in a few weeks.
As we covered earlier today, the Pirate Ship token is a rare item that, once found, can be used to unlock nearly everything in the Item Shop for free. If you’re lucky enough, everything from emotes to skins can be instantly added to your locker without spending a single V-Buck, which has clearly got players rushing to start the hunt.
As pointed out by Twitter user and Fortnite insider HYPEX, the new mini season is already so popular within its first day that Epic has had to implement queues to sort the 4.5 million concurrent players. Data from Fortnite bot reports that the queue peaked at 12 minutes long, although some Twitter users claimed to be waiting even longer than that.
As of the time of writing, there’s no queue to get into Fortnite. I was able to jump into a match with only a slightly longer wait time.
Although Fortnite’s status as one of the most popular live-service games means that it’s never hurting for players, particularly when a new season or event starts, I can’t remember the last time a queue was implemented. A major part of the hype is the long-awaited One Piece collab, but, as big as that is, it’s pretty obvious that’s not the main reason.
The elusive Pirate Ship tokens and their frankly ridiculous ability to unlock everything in the Item Shop for 14 days are a massive draw for every type of Fortnite player, from hardcore fans who play every day to casuals just wanting a bargain. It’s a big gamble from Epic to potentially have tons of players not spending V-Bucks, but it’s clearly paying off right now.
Whether that ends up being the case further down the line isn’t clear, as GTA 6 is undoubtedly going to draw most gamers away, potentially for the rest of the year. That remains to be seen, but Epic is at least going to reap the high player counts until then, even if it means ponying up a bunch of free items.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/fortnite-treasure-hunters-one-piece-season-queue-pirate-ship-tokens/
