Fortnite’s Battle Royale ranked mode is facing its toughest year yet. Throughout 2025, engagement has steadily declined, with record-low player counts now being reported worldwide.
Once a core pillar of Fortnite’s competitive scene, Ranked Battle Royale has struggled to keep players invested. Issues like unbalanced matchmaking, long queue times, slow pacing, and a confusing progression system have pushed many away.
By September 2025, global ranked participation reportedly dropped below 2,000 concurrent players at times, which is an unprecedented low. Even with Fortnite still attracting 2–3 million daily active users across all modes, Ranked has failed to hold momentum. This is a sharp contrast to its 14 million concurrent high in late 2024.
While Ranked struggles, the Creative map Steal the Brainrot has surged to the top of Fortnite’s charts. Inspired by Roblox-style brainrot tycoon clones, the map leans into meme-driven, casual fun with resource management, secret unlocks, and replayable codes.
It recently hit a peak of 542,082 concurrent players, shattering records for user-generated content (UGC) in Fortnite. On average, it pulls hundreds of thousands of players daily, often outperforming Battle Royale itself, which has hovered around ~100K concurrent at times.
Retention numbers are strong as well, with 46.97% of players returning the next day and 32.07% still active a week later. Average sessions run about 18.7 minutes, rivaling or surpassing official Fortnite modes.
Not everyone believes Steal the Brainrot’s rise is organic. Some players and creators argue Epic Games has given it an artificial push, with repeated social media highlights, prime in-game visibility, and even mobile push notifications promoting the map.
Critics claim this boosts it unfairly over other maps like GO GOATED! (23.9 min average sessions) or Raptor Heist (47 min sessions), which have higher engagement times. Still, the numbers do not lie, the map has become a cultural hit and the face of Fortnite Creative’s dominance.
