Having work early on a Saturday morning, senior Hailey McKinney knew that she needed sleep. Her boyfriend, 2016 SHS graduate Janson Benge, however, had a different idea. According to McKinney, he was up at 2 a.m. shouting into his headset to his friends keeping McKinney up. She can’t understand the reason behind the craze of the game he was playing, Fortnite.

“They’ll be like yelling and shouting into their mics, like really it is not that deep.” McKinney said. “Even though I think it’s interesting and I think it’s like a cool concept, I don’t really necessarily get the hype. I don’t get why it’s like ‘Fortnite, Fortnite, Fortnite.’”

One of the video games has taken the Internet by storm, quite literally, as the players in the game “Fortnite” have to guide their player through a 100-person battle royale, where every man is for themselves, at least in the traditional multiplayer mode, but not everyone is on the same side when it comes to how good or bad Fortnite is.

For freshman Nicolas Deter, a student who plays the game, it is something that not only he enjoys playing, but also enjoys watching as well. Deter watches Twitch streamers, such as Ninja and Avery, who  broadcast and provide viewers a new perspective and new opportunity to learn more about the game.

Freshman Jackson Doane also plays, and he thinks that “Fortnite” is one of the more successful battle royale games.

“They’re constantly updating the game,” Doane said. Deter added, “It’s free too, you can get it at any time.”

Each of them shared knowledge on the subject, regarding playing the game and watching others play the game. It has gained popularity ever since it’s release free-to-play multiplayer in September 2017, with research at New Zoo, a website that looks at insights on global games, esports and mobile markets, showing nearly 16.3 percent of players out of the 30.1 percent total who are playing battle royale games, are playing “Fortnite.”

Doane thinks the game could be going places, especially since the developers are constantly putting new modes and other aspects into each update.

“They’re not trying to make it look realistic, it looks cartoonish, but it’s something different with battle royale and something different with video games in general,” Doane said.

McKinney doesn’t hate the game, but it did annoy her when Benge first started playing it. She didn’t understand what was going on until he explained it to her, then she decided that she would play it if she actually knew how to use the controller.