Fortnite has launched a major new battle royale mode, Reload, which drew in more than a million players to the game over the weekend.
Available in both regular and Zero Build variants, Reload is a smaller-scale battle royale option with 40 players organised into 10 squads, with respawns enabled if at least one team member is still alive.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Reload is very much inspired by Call of Duty: Warzone’s popular Resurgence mode, which offers very similar mechanics. Respawning isn’t instant and requires a wait time which increases over the match – though aggressive play can reduce it, if your teammates take out other players or entire squads.
Reload wraps all of this in another very popular wrapper – that of Fortnite’s original Chapter 1 game map that returned last year to enormous success, gifting Fortnite its biggest player numbers . In Reload, the action takes place in a shrunken-down version of the original battle royale island, albeit with iconic locations such as Tilted Towers, Pleasant Park and Retail Row replicated faithfully.