The mass trend sweeping across the world right now is playing the battle royale video game Fortnite. Fortnite is a game in which 100 players are dropped into a hunger game-esque arena.  The players compete against each other in a free for all fashions, eliminating other players with guns and other explosives, attempting to be the last man or squad standing, all the while a deadly zone closes in around the arena and players, forcing the players to encounter each other.

Famous celebrities such as Drake and Travis Scott as well as NBA superstars like Gordon Hayward and Josh Hart stream Fortnite on the gaming website Twitch.tv raking in hundreds of thousands of views with each broadcast. Many DeMatha students also consider themselves top Fortnite players, shamelessly posting wins on their snapchat story as often as they can.

Fortnite wasn’t the first popular battle royal game however. The format first became mass popularized by Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds, or PUBG for short.

Fortnite has skyrocketed past PUBG in popularity for many reasons. Fortnite is a much more casual game that requires less skill and, the most important reason, Fortnite is free. PUBG costs $29.99, however the game has much better mechanics, graphics, and all around gameplay.

However Fortnite charges players to buy additions to the game, such as skins for characters or certain dance celebrations for after kills. The “battle pass” to buy these additions costs $9.99 and needs to be bought again every few months in order to earn the newest skins and dances.

“I would never play PUBG, it is a boring version of Fortnite,” exclaimed junior Andrew Tackas, who at one point played over 20 hours of Fortnite a week.

I tried playing PUBG but I couldn’t get the hang of it,” recalled junior Myles Myree “Fortnite is much more fun and easier to play.”

Junior Declan Ber

ard said he would try out PUBG if given the chance, “Fortnite is a very fun, casual game, I feel like PUBG is the next level up in terms of competitiveness.”

Overall, most DeMatha students have never played PUBG, so their opinion on the game compared to Fortnite is very different. I believe this is because of the fact that Fortnite is free so anyone can play it while PUBG costs 30 dollars.