UPDATE 16/6/20: Fortnite developer Epic Games has issued a statement on the capacity problems which marred last night’s live event.
The developer said it capped the game at 12m concurrent players with more than half an hour to go before the event was due to kick off. (The game’s all-time concurrent record is 12.3m, for its first Travis Scott concert.) Presumably many millions more would have flocked into the game, or tried to, had Epic not done this.
That said, Epic explained that it was “improving systems” so that more people can watch live events in-game in the future.
We were overwhelmed by the response to The Device. At 12M players in-game, we capped participation for stability while 8.4M more watched live on Twitch + YouTube. As we push the edge of what live-events can be, we’re improving systems so more of you can experience them in-game. pic.twitter.com/YTycsB1Zoh
— Fortnite (@Fortnite) June 16, 2020
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ORIGINAL STORY 15/6/20: Fortnite has just finished its latest live event – but many players were left unable to log-in and play.
30 minutes before Fortnite’s “The Device” story event was due to kick off, developer Epic Games tweeted to say the game’s servers were now full, and players would instead have to view the event via streams on Twitch or YouTube.