A battle royale game is one that is online, multiplayer and encompasses survival, exploring and looking for elements that will help with a player’s survival.
This genre of games are won based on the feature of the last person or team standing.
These types of games can include hundreds of gamers playing at a time.
Each person starts with very limited equipment and they have to kill off the other players without being caught outside of an ever-shrinking safe area.
The winner of a battle royale will be the only one/team left alive.
This genre was born from a Japanese film and a novel called Battle Royale.
Battle Royale Gaming
Games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite are the best of battle royale games.
The story they use is to put players on an island where they have to find weapons and gear that will aid in their survival.
These are two of the critical factors that happen in the genre of battle royale along with the fact that to win, the player or team has to be last person alive and all others are no longer viable.
These games have been fairly obscure in the past but in the last 2 years have jumped significantly in their popularity.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ alone has sold over 49 million copies since June 2018.
PUBG Mobile listed even higher numbers in excess of 350 million.
While some of these numbers are disputed by others, the historic climb in popularity is clearly evident with the skyrocketing numbers.
While the mainline battle royale games are breaking records, there are other battle royale games that are hitting the high numbers as well.
Free game types are gaining steam along with those who partner up with social media and entertainment companies.
The goal of these partnerships is to expand the game into an online Esport.
One more platform for players to enjoy.
Battle royale type games have a broad appeal and those that create the games like them as well as they are not complicated to make.
They are simple storylines and their basic premise makes them easy to present, integrate and work on.
The last player standing is easy to put into play no matter what the game is.
Adding maps, weapons and ammo spawns are also simple additions to put into the game as well.
One of the early battle royale games, DayZ, hits the nail on the head with the fact that these battle royale games work well because they are a social game that gets intertwined with a social psychology part to it.
They are not just about skill and reflexes but also about smarts and common sense.
They are games of survival that draw the players into battle either on their own or in a team with both physical and mental skills.
Either way, the challenge of using their wits in conjunction with weapons and agility makes for a challenging game that hundreds can join in and play.
Apex Legends
This game is a free playing battle royale that was created by Respawn Entertainment and then put out by Electronic Arts.
It was released in 2019 across multiple platforms.
It wracked up 25 million players quickly after it hit the gaming market.
The Apex Legends game premise is that 60 gamers are put on a battlefield where they need to find weapons, loot and ammunition while fighting with other gamers.
The ring that they are playing in continually shrinks and forces players closer together until just a few are left and one team wins.
Apex Legends is made by the same makers who did Titanfall so was able to ride into the gaming ring with Titanfall’s previous popularity.
Apex Legends takes place in the Outlands where Titanfall happened so links with the already popular series.
In this game humans and robots fight to survive and win.
This particular game takes place in one place called Kings Canyon.
There is the potential that the creators will bring more maps online in the near future making the game even more popular with the ability to play with more diversification and interaction.