The Epic Games were getting ready for record attendance of their Big Bang Event featuring Eminem. Yet still, when people came, the Fortnite servers couldn’t cope with traffic.
On December 2, at 2 ET, Eminem was set to introduce his first ever virtual concert in Fortnite, and the Epic Games widely advertised the event, which excited millions. On the day, many users had to queue for the show long never to be admitted. The game’s socials kept releasing encouraging statements and promising more shows for those who couldn’t make it to the concert:
Well that escalated quickly. Whether you're in the lobby or in a queue, fear not!
We’ll be adding two more showings of The Big Bang after the 2pm ET show.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 2, 2023
Well, that’s not really a consolation prize they had to pull out of nowhere. So far, all of Fortnite’s concerts have had additional showings for three days after a premiere. People who got stuck in the queue were not happy, to say the least. They came for the opportunity to see a live event, not to watch a re-run.
However, it later appeared that even re-runs were in danger as the game servers were struggling to recover from the enormous strain put on them by what we can only assume was a record number of viewers. The official game account reported after the event:
We're still working to recover from the overwhelming attendance from the first event showtime.
We're taking Fortnite offline temporarily while we work to set up encore shows in a few hours. More info on our next showtimes coming soon. pic.twitter.com/N6jHOvpJTM
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 2, 2023
And finally, several hours later, the Fortnite socials informed the public that there would be just one re-run, and those who didn’t make it to the main event would be given some in-game rewards:
Here we go. The Big Bang event will have one more showing at 11pm ET tonight.
We wanted to run multiple showings, but over the course of the day realized that wasn’t going to happen due to technical issues. Today didn’t go as we planned, so we’re granting the following to everyone who played the OG season. This is a thank you and a heartfelt sorry.
Here we go. The Big Bang event will have one more showing at 11pm ET tonight.
We wanted to run multiple showings, but over the course of the day realized that wasn’t going to happen due to technical issues. Today didn’t go as we planned, so we’re granting the following to… pic.twitter.com/bXWaS4e3zH
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 3, 2023
Meanwhile, Eminem’s concert itself lasted under 3 minutes and consisted of the beginning of “Lose Yourself” and 1.5 verses of “Godzilla”. The graphics were not as childish as at the previous record-breaking concerts. Still, the running time of the event left many fans unpleasantly surprised.
Was it a failure, or was it a successful commercial stint? Fortnite was not able to accommodate all users but has attracted a record number of players to its servers. Eminem provided a pre-recorded and censored stump of a show, but his Fortnite merch capsule released for the occasion is almost sold out already.
Our team logged in two hours in advance, waited in a queue, and eventually made it to the event with time to spare. Because of that, they were able to stream the show for everyone to watch, and our audience reached 4000 people at peak time. You can watch the record below.
