You see something move in the distance. Is it an enemy, a friend or is the map still rendering? You hear branches snap and boots hit the ground. All around the tension is building. You check your stores; with low ammo and only a frying pan to protect yourself, you lie down and wait. The bushes shield you from other players as they walk past you. Unbeknownst to them you spring from your hiding spot and dash them across the head with the pan, their body disappearing before you, leaving only a crate of loot and a “winner winner chicken dinner!” for you.

This is just an average PUBG experience where real-life management and gunplay create an atmosphere so thick with tension you need a knife to cut it. In contrast, Fortnite is graphically appealing, but that’s all it is: all flash, no substance. Fortnite has continually introduced new gimmicky mechanics such as rocket riding and guided missiles, and while yes, these can be fun, they lessen the skill required to play the game. PUBG on the other hand is what a battle royale game should be. It makes you think and improvise with mechanics so realistic that you feel like a tribute in the “Hunger Games.”

Every move you make in PUBG generates sound, forcing you to pay attention to the slightest footstep or door opening. Tension and apprehension are what make PUBG the true winner of battle royale games over Fortnite. If you’re stuck in a house and you know you’re surrounded by a squad, what do you do? Hole up
inside the house and Home Alone your attackers or risk breaking the window and making a run towards the attackers’ empty vehicles? These decisions root you in the game, while in Fortnite you would just have to build your way out. Where is the strategy in that, the nuance, the tension? Granted, there might be some skill in fort-building mechanics, but it is a gimmicky mechanic that replaces tension with a flashy distraction to real gameplay.

Fortnite exists purely as a cheap knock off of PUBG, replacing the intricacy of PUBG with meaningless emotes and skins while continually adding new features with no regard to keeping the game balanced. Fortnite is justifiably a cultural phenomenon, but its child-like gimmicks and gameplay don’t deserve a direct comparison to PUBG. Nothing compares to the blood-pumping, heart-stopping, sweat-dripping, controller-clenching experience that is PUBG.

Where are we dropping, boys?” This is the question that millions of gamers all around the world have been asking each other the past six months. Even if you’ve been living in a cave for the last year, you’ve still probably heard of Fortnite. Fortnite has exploded all over the world, with European Futbol players celebrating with Fortnite-themed dances after scoring goals, UMBC basketball players comparing their highly improbable win against Virginia to a Fortnite “dub” and the many cringey Fortnite-themed promposals.

Fortnite has taken the world by storm in recent months. After releasing its Battle Royale mode in September, there are now over 3.4million concurrent players, breaking records previously set by PUBG. The streaming service, Twitch, has exploded due to Fortnite’s success. Recently NinjasHyper, a streamer who makes millions playing the game, broke Twitch’s records when he played with Drake and several other celebrities. Because of the pop-culture fame it has garnered, Fortnite’s popularity has only grown larger and larger, yet unlike popular franchises like Call of Duty, which rarely live up to the hype, Fortnite is both popular and fun to play because it’s a fundamentally well-made game. Fortnite started from the bottom, and is now, within less than a month, the top-grossing game on the App Store.

At the heart of Fortnite, the idea of fun reigns supreme. Unlike many battle royale games, specifically PUBG, Fortnite is a cartoonish game, with the empha- sis placed less on accuracy and realism, and instead on immediate action, cooperation and creativity. While often misconceived as a game for younger children due to its cartoonish style, Fortnite is made for all ages and only mastered by a few. While it tends to be easier to learn the shooting portion of the game, it takes a great deal of work to master the Minecraft-esque building mechanics. With a smaller map, firefights are much more likely to break out than in PUBG, allowing the players to quickly jump into the battle and be ready to attack the other players.

Creativity is a huge part of Fortnite, manifesting itself in the options for player skins or outfits, dances and pickaxes. Different, interesting items, such as the impulse grenade, give the player the ability to make insane jumps and kills, which is unheard of in a realistic game. When realism isn’t the goal, battle royales have the ability to be much more fun, without sacrificing their competitive side.

Overall, Fortnite is a fun, free and wholesome gaming experience that one can rarely find elsewhere. The game emphasizes cooperation, teamwork, competition and creativity for so many people. So “where are we dropping boys?” It really doesn’t matter, as long as you’re enjoying the game.