For the last decade or so, the gaming community as a whole has been dominated by titles featuring team based multiplayer. “Call of Duty” and “Halo” stand out as two of the biggest titles for this style. Strategic gaming has also taken center stage when titles like “Fallout” or “Skyrim” dominated for periods of time. Now, a new style has taken the gaming world by storm. Battle royale.

The battle royale genre of gameplay blends different elements together and puts them all in one free-for-all style of play. In solo play of “Fortnite: Battle Royale,” 100 players drop into the world from the battle bus with nothing but a pickax for harvesting materials. Then it becomes a race to the first weapon if you land close to somebody. Putting on shields, building and knowing the ranking system of the guns are all essential to your survival and victory royale.

With only one life per player, there is no room for error. This is where the survival point of this game comes in. Depending on the type of player you are, you can play a run-and-gun aggressive style with “double pump” (two pump shotguns) or charging ahead with a golden Scar assault rifle. Another way to play is staying laid back and stealthy by setting traps or waiting for people to come into the scope of your golden sniper while you sit dressed up as a bush.

Regardless of which way you decide to play, there is one thing that will impact all players the same. The storm. In both “Fortnite” and “PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds” (PUBG), you are on an island with a deadly storm slowly closing in. It stops for no one and nothing can make it go slower. In the event you’re caught in it, you do not die immediately but your health slowly ticks down. Each wave is deadlier and only more terrifying.

A lot of the same things can be said about the style of play in PUBG. However, there are differences in the environment. First off, “Fortnite” is more of an animated cartoon game, where “PUBG” is more realistic. A drastic difference is the ability to drive in “PUBG.” Also in battlegrounds, you cannot build walls and make stairs out of thin air like you can in “Fortnite.” Essentially, if you’re looking for a more realistic last man/team standing match, play “PUBG.”

While these games are new, the battle royale genre pulls aspects from older games. It’s not hard to see the massive online multiplayer part considering it’s 100 people at one time playing. Another is scavenging from strategic games. Choosing a sniper or shotgun is a huge difference in both of these titles but it is completely dependent on who is playing. Do you take extra healing items or five guns? Boogie bombs or grenades? The decision making is endless but it’s one of those things that makes every player unique.

The battle royale games have seen major YouTubers like Muselk, Ninja and Ali-A, who just hit 10 million subscribers, pop on and play consistently. These channels have “Fornite” content, some daily, and also have huge view counts on those videos due to the game’s popularity. One of the funnier channels is H20 Delirious’ channel where he and his friends play more for fun and do things like the no kill challenge.

There are other titles that aren’t as big as “Fortnite” or “PUBG” like “H1Z1” and “The Culling.” In a statement from the Fortnite team at Epic Games, on Feb. 4, “3.4 million concurrent players jammed the servers.” What that means is, they were all trying to play at the same time and the game’s servers couldn’t handle it. A similar event was Call of Duty WWII’s launch issue that bugged the game for most of the first weekend.

“Fortnite” as well as “PUBG”  have grown faster than anyone could have expected. There is no doubt that the battle royale games are taking social media and pop culture by storm. Simply put, if this was a fad, it would’ve died out a long time ago. It appears this is a trend where gaming is headed, so get ready and don’t get left behind in the storm of old gaming.