Fortnite in 2026: Is the once-thriving empire facing a hidden crisis as Epic chases after Roblox?

Once considered the unbeatable model of live-service games, Fortnite is entering a turbulent period in 2026. On March 24th, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shocked the industry by announcing plans to lay off over 1,000 employees, equivalent to approximately 20% of the workforce. The reason given is that Fortnite's engagement levels are expected to decline starting in 2025, causing operating costs to outpace revenue growth, even though the game is still estimated to generate around $6 billion (~150 trillion VND) in 2025.

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Looking back at its development, Fortnite remains one of the most successful products in the history of the gaming industry. Since the launch of its Battle Royale mode in 2017, the game has generated approximately $42 billion in revenue (~1,050,000 billion VND), averaging over $2.7 million per day. This achievement far surpasses many iconic titles like GTA V or the entire Call of Duty series combined over the same period. Furthermore, in 2024, Disney invested $1.5 billion (~37,500 billion VND) in Epic Games, demonstrating its strong belief in this ecosystem.

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However, behind that glamorous picture lie clear signs of stagnation. Monthly active players on PlayStation and Xbox have decreased by approximately 28% since 2023. Average monthly playtime has also plummeted, from 29 hours to around 15.4 hours by 2025. Many recent seasons have been criticized for lacking excitement, causing the FOMO effect – the very factor that propelled Fortnite to explosive success – to gradually fade.

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Meanwhile, Epic Games' operating costs have been ballooning. The company has to spend billions of dollars on server infrastructure, lawsuits with Apple and Google, and maintaining the Epic Games Store – a platform heavily reliant on Fortnite for revenue. The recent price increase for V-Bucks is also seen as a sign that Epic is trying to maximize profits from its existing players.

Another important factor comes from competition, particularly Roblox . In 2025, Roblox recorded strong growth with tens of millions of concurrent players in some games, total playtime exceeding 10 billion hours per month, and a rapidly growing young user base. This is a player group that Fortnite once dominated, but whose market share is now gradually being eroded.

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Faced with this pressure, Epic is shifting its strategy, pushing to transform Fortnite into a user-generated content (UGC) platform, similar to Roblox. Instead of focusing on developing internal content, Epic encourages players and creators to build their own 'islands' and implements a trading system within each region. To attract creators, Epic commits to sharing up to 74% of its revenue with them, significantly higher than Roblox, and has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to the creative community in recent years.

However, this strategy has also sparked controversy. The reduction of game modes developed by Epic itself has negatively impacted the core Fortnite experience. The game interface is increasingly cluttered with user-generated content of varying quality, while the development tools remain incomplete compared to Roblox. This has led many players to believe that Fortnite is sacrificing quality for revenue.

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Currently, Fortnite is in a rather unique situation: it's both a top-performing game in terms of revenue and faces significant structural problems. The 'Roblox-ization' strategy might help Epic maintain short-term growth, but in the long run, this approach carries significant risks if it fails to balance profitability and player experience.