There is no contest: battle royale (BR) games are the most popular genre of video games on the market right now. Breakout hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) exploded onto the market and shook up how game development companies approach their games. Following the success of PUBG, Fortnite’s free-to-play battle royale mode was released and has since become the most-streamed game on popular streaming website Twitch. While the two games are vastly different in gameplay, design, and audience approach, they both share the BR formula.
With PUBG being out for a much longer period of time than Fortnite, the game has had time to explore and experience the world of competitive gaming and esports. While I don’t believe that Fortnite will ever be picked up as a popular competitive game due to its casual nature, I do believe that even from a spectator standpoint, both titles have a lot to work on. The nature of BR games is chaos; watching anywhere from 50 to 70 people play causes a whole lot of confusion for the spectator.
The games need to look toward one traditional sport for inspiration: golf. While golf is generally not as popular to watch as many other sports, the systems that the leagues have for viewing the sport are smooth and tightly controlled, and they work well. In golf, no one really cares about some new player. They want to watch the pros and the other well-known golfers. If BR games took this standpoint, and instead of trying to focus on random action focused on the top scoring teams or the top players and wove a storyline out of that, the experience of watching the game would be much improved.
This is just one of the many points that the genre—which is still relatively new in esports—can look to. The companies will have to improve not just the matches themselves, but the tools available for spectators as well. If the developers ignore the chance to improve their competitive scene, the genre might just drift back into nothingness.