Fortnite fever: now players can get a university scholarship or filthy rich

In all the recent Roseanne micro-controversies, one incredible statement by Roseanne Barr seems to have eluded her critics. “I have 20 fortnite victory royale wins,” she tweeted back in February.

It’s not clear how serious the 65-year-old comeback kid was being. Mostly because, as Fortnite Battle Royale players will know, to have 20 Victory Royale wins is incredibly hard. Gamers start off marooned on an island with a hundred other online players. They have to blast, shoot and bludgeon with a hammer until they’re the last player standing. The odds against winning once are therefore 100 to one. To do that 20 times? Much higher.

But Barr at least showed she had her finger on the pulse. The phenomenon has crept into the mainstream very slowly considering its reach – most outlets, including Good Morning America, started by reporting it as a playground moral panic – like planking or tide pods.

The game’s latest landmark has been Ashland University in Ohio announcing it was offering Fortnite scholarships on its eSports team.

“I think Fortnite has a lot of room for players to get creative,” head coach Josh Buchanan told Variety. “There’s a lot of teamwork in [the game’s core building mechanic] that’s really untapped.” Missouri Baptist University is apparently planning to follow suit.

“As part of the program, you’re going to have coaches and a staff dedicated to helping you succeed,” Buchanan went on, “not only in the game but also in your academics.”

They won’t be short of applicants – Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, has decided to put aside a staggering $100m in Fortnite competition prize money.

On YouTube and game streaming platform Twitch the game has broken all records. The most popular streamer right now is Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who was quick to pick up on the growing popularity of Fortnite (only released in its present form late last year). He’s estimated to make at least $350,000 a month from people watching him play.

On 13 March, Ninja hooked up with R&B superstar Drake, rapper Travis Scott, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and Megaupload founder and general libertarian scourge of the net Kim Dotcom.

“I never thought I would say this,” Dotcom announced, mid-game, “but Drake, I have a slurp for you.”

Sportsmen seem to love its cartoonish accessible overtones and infuriatingly competitive core. Around the world, soccer stars are revising their goal celebrations in tribute. Josh Hart of the Los Angeles Lakers has custom Fortnite basketball shoes. The Milwaukee Brewers recently filmed themselves playing Fortnite on the stadium jumbotrons.

Compared to its rivals, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Overwatch, Fortnite is a definitely millennial brand, with a goofy sense of humour and a dress-up box attitude seemingly made for ironic meme-ready tributes. It has many of the same bright palette tones as cult building game Minecraft. In the Drake stream, Ninja can be seen bashing at things with a comical blue and red plastic hammer. When players die, rather than splatter pancreas shards all over the screen, they cleanly vaporise. It’s a very bad candidate for a media Satanic Panic.

In fact, with its cooperative, team-building ethos, it fits better at an executive away-day than a pentagram-doodled den of iniquity. It’s the sort of game pushy parents force teens to practice to improve their eligibility Harvard Business School. For now at least, a few Ashland University scholarships should suffice.