It seems like Fortnite’s been all the rage over the last couple of months – and with good reason. It introduced an entirely new genre to the widest possible audience in an insanely short amount of time.

Sure, Fortnite hasn’t been the first “Battle Royale” game on the market, but it tweaked the formula and made it more accessible – in every way, shape, and form. The game is completely free and is available on a plethora of systems – PC, Mac, iOS, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and soon on Android as well.

Not to mention the fact that there are over 125 million registered players and that over two million players downloaded the game off of the Nintendo eShop in just 24 hours.

Even if you were living under a rock, you would have probably heard of the Battle Royale craze by now.

Because of this, an interesting question arises – will MOBA games be able to persevere in the age of the Battle Royale?

MOBA Games Are Constantly Changing

Regardless if you’re playing League of Legends or DOTA 2 – arguably the two most played and recognizable games in the genre – you surely know that the game changes on a fairly frequent basis.

There are smaller patches but now and then – perhaps when the game reaches a stale point – the developers will turn things upside down. They will add new champions, change existing items or add new ones; they will rebalance a huge part of the game and make it exciting (or different at least) once again.

Because of this, even if you take a break from playing when you come back things are going to seem refreshing. By doing this, the developers never let the game become stale, and they can keep you “hooked” for years.

Now while Epic Games is doing the exact same thing with Fortnite, if you’re an avid MOBA fan you’re never going to feel vastly dissatisfied. You won’t feel like you’re playing a dead game while others are having all the fun playing something new.

Fantastic Esports Scenes

While Fortnite is bound to become the next big esport, you can never really count out League of Legends and DOTA 2. Hundreds of thousands of people tune in every single week to watch professional teams duke it out on big stages all around the world.

There were almost sixty million unique viewers for the 2017 League of Legends World Championship finals, and that number is rising with every year. MOBA player bases are huge and extremely passionate as well.

MOBA games are etched in everyone’s conscience not just as one of the most popular genres today but as the first truly global esports as well. They have a very concrete place within the gaming pantheon, and they aren’t going away any time soon.

It’s Still Free-To-Play

People underestimate just how big of an impact a free game can have. Gamers have the chance to jump ship whenever they feel like it, and the fact that they can get another highly polished game for free is a big deal – both as a positive and a negative thing.

So even if a portion of MOBA players leave for Battle Royale games, there will always be new ones coming.

It is a constant cycle, and it’s present in every single game. However, because League of Legends and DOTA 2 have the monopoly over the genre, any potential new players will automatically be directed to one of those two.

All they have to do is keep improving and adapting with time and as we’ve seen over the past couple of years – both Riot Games and Valve have no problem with improving on their product and listening to player feedback.

Tons Of Online Content

It’s incredibly rare for a game to just die out. It’s never overnight but rather a long process that simply reaches its climax after a while.

However, if a game has an active, passionate player base and a ton of online content, then it’s essentially in a state of constant growth. When you have a lot of content creators, interviewers (like Thorin), streamers and popular players then the game grows naturally. Players get to have fun with the entire ecosystem even when they’re not playing, and they’re getting a lot of entertainment even outside of the game as well.

Fortnite is definitely on the right path – it has some of the most popular streamers on Twitch, and you can find a ton of fantastic content on YouTube, regardless if you’re looking for funny highlights or educational videos.

These Genres Can Co-Exist

When Blizzard announced the Overwatch League, you could have read a metric ton of hate and pessimism online – and perhaps with good reason. Even though the World Cup reached over three hundred thousand viewers at one point, the APEX tournaments (where you could actually see the highest level of Overwatch play) consistently hovered at just a couple of thousands.

Being skeptical about such a big endeavor is understandable, especially given all the facts that were surrounding Overwatch as an esport. Blizzard was essentially trying to create an esport out of thin air and when they tried that the last time they failed miserably.

However, the amount of hate wasn’t present because it was such a bold undertaking or because of Blizzard’s history, but because of the unfiltered hate certain players had.

All these games, genres and esports can co-exist with one another. A successful Overwatch League – and it has been a success by all metrics – benefits everyone, even other esports. If more investors and people, in general, are accepting competitive gaming as actual competition worth spectating then that can only benefit the entire ecosystem.

If just a single esport dies out, then everyone loses. There is more than enough space, revenue and fans for every game and a single gamer can watch and follow multiple competitive scenes.

That goes for just a single genre as well – League of Legends and DOTA 2 are two relatively similar games, and yet they can both co-exist within a single genre and still be incredibly successful.

In other words, MOBA games will never be threatened by Battle Royale’s success. If anything they can prosper as well.