A Free-To-Play Underdog Beats Out Destiny 2 As Xbox One’s Most Played Game

With Destiny 2 making the rounds and other holiday hits arriving pretty much on a weekly basis for [...]

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With Destiny 2 making the rounds and other holiday hits arriving pretty much on a weekly basis for the holidays, you'd think that one AAA title would clearly be showing dominance on the Xbox One front. And yet, according to statistics, a surprising underdog has emerged as the most played game on the console.

The Microsoft Store page shows that, at the moment, the game that's leading the charge on the Most Played Games list on the page is none other than Epic Games' Fortnite, which found a surprise release earlier this year and gained quite an audience following its release. Its popularity picked up even more when the team introduced a free Battle Royale update, making the game have some closer similarities to the best-selling PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Meanwhile, other games on the list include Destiny 2, which secured a strong second place position; NBA 2K18, which came up in third; Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, which continues to surprise with its fourth place positioning; and Grand Theft Auto V, which rounds out the top five. Other games on the list include Overwatch, Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Madden NFL 18.

So what does this mean, with a free-to-play title (for the most part – you may want to double down on a Founder's Pack) beating out a popular sequel like Destiny 2? Well, it pretty much means that players are still engaging in a bit way on Xbox Live, with various experiences where they can interact with friends.

What this also means, though, is that players want PUBG style action on consoles – and that will pretty much guarantee the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds when it arrives on the console later this year. The PC version of that game has managed to sell 15 million copies in Early Access, and attain a large audience of players, including record-breaking concurrent ones. The Xbox One version should have no trouble continuing that success.

As for Fortnite, it's building up its own special little audience, and should help Epic Games get huge numbers in time for the end of the year. We can't wait to see what the publisher has planned for the game next.

Fortnite is available now for Xbox One, as well as PlayStation 4 and PC.

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