Fortnite Battle Royale is taking over not just the gaming world but also popular culture. It has now become such a phenomenon that even rapper Drake jumped on the bandwagon earlier this month.
The game essentially drops 100 players onto an island where they compete against each other until there’s just one left standing. It’s free to play, but in-app purchases hit $103 million in February, quite a testament to its insane popularity.
So why’s is it doing so well?
According to Brandon Davis, Special Assignment Producer at ComicBook.com, the appeal lies in the fact that “it’s like the Hunger Games.”
“It’s a lot of things that you can compare it to that you’re familiar with.” Plus, “it’s easy to get a grip on.”
Janet Rose, known on Twitch as “xChocobars,” is one of the lucky few who’ve won a game of Fortnite. She says it is “really fast-paced.” But even she doesn’t exactly know what’s behind the hype.
“I’m still figuring out why I like it so much compared to other games.”
The price of popularity is the heavy lift for the tech behind the scenes. Fortnite servers have gone down as they struggled to keep up with intense traffic.
“Those types of things tend to happen while this game is so popular,” said Davis.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/no-fake-love-for-fortnite).
API platform RapidAPI recently became a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation after raising $150 million in a Series D funding round led by Softbank Vision Two Fund. Microsoft's Venture Fund, M12, and Andreessen Horowitz also participated. RapidAPI says it provides the world's largest API hub which enables millions of developers and companies to build software faster. Iddo Gino, founder and CEO of RapidAPI, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Facebook parent Meta officially has changed it’s ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’. Paul Meeks, a portfolio manager, Independent Solutions Wealth Management, and a professor of practice in the Baker School of Business at The Citadel, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the tech giant has had to make big changes to its name, its ticker, and its business plans. "When you see what's happening in digital advertising — and there was a slowdown there even before the threat of a recession, which could cause a even more drastic slowdown next year — they had to pivot," he said. Meeks noted he sees Facebook dominating in the metaverse space going forward — whatever that may end up being.
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On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
CreditCards.com senior industry analyst Ted Rossman compares the Apple Pay Later offering to similar four-step processes at Affirm and Klarna, and says this is a way for the tech giant to dive deeper into the financial industry.
