On November 21, leaks emerged that Fortnite had Eminem-themed skins and a live concert in the works. Marshall Mathers then took to Twitter himself to drop a teaser video for the upcoming collaboration with the popular Battle Royale title. Fortnite has a history of hosting live concerts from within the game, and they always bring a healthy viewership wave to the title.
???? calling all grandmas 12.2 pic.twitter.com/5WhalpnOEW
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) November 21, 2023
Fortnite hosted these special events in the past to tie in with the end of their seasons, and this is likely once again the case. Eminem’s cryptic teaser video captioned “calling all grandmas 12.2” ties into the end date of the current Fortnite season, December 2.
Fortnite’s current season, Season OG has been a wild success for the Battle Royale. Players are taking a trip down memory lane and both streamers and viewers are once again entranced by the game. Fortnite OG has brought the game back to the top of Twitch and is currently experiencing the best viewership it has seen all year.
Read also: Fortnite OG helps the game see best viewership in 2023
The combination of Fortnite’s hugely popular Season OG mixed with a concert from Eminem will likely be a potent one for viewership. Fortnite live events in the past have brought in millions of viewers and set records for the game on Twitch.
Fortnite Live events have boosted the game's viewership to new heights time after time; these events usually manage to boost the game above 1M concurrent viewers on Twitch. On June 15, 2020, Fortnite hosted their ‘The Device’ event which received 2.3M Peak Viewers, a peak viewership record for the game that still stands today.
In terms of viewership for the various live concerts Fortnite has hosted, viewership is slightly lower for these events but still remains significant.
The ‘Astronomical’ event in collaboration with Travis Scott was Fortnite’s most popular live concert. The event featured five screenings of a concert hosted by Travis Scott, heavily featuring artwork of and references to his 2018 release Astroworld. The event was Fortnite’s most successful live concert in terms of viewership, and the game reached 1.23M Peak Viewers on Twitch.
A year later, Fortnite hosted the Ariana Grande Fortnite Concert on August 6. The event saw Fortnite reach more than 1M Peak Viewers for the first time in 2021, although it was able to reach this figure in September and December later that same year.
Fortnite’s collaboration with Eminem has all the potential to be the biggest live concert that Fortnite has hosted, and perhaps the most popular live event of theirs too. Travis Scott and Ariana Grande are no small names in the music industry, but the combination of Eminem’s global popularity and the resurgence of attention Fortnite is receiving with Season OG might be the winning formula for Fortnite to set a new viewership record for a live concert.