These days, the battle royale genre is nearly inescapable. Titles like Fortnite or Apex Legends have become some of the most popular titles in gaming, and many games opt to include some form of battle royale mode. Despite this success, battle royales are a surprisingly new concept in gaming, having only become a major player in the last 10 years. This startling leap from near obscurity to a worldwide phenomenon has its origins in a space that many of gaming's best features come from: modding.
Game mods have been a source of enjoyment and creativity for nearly as long as video games have existed. Games like Skyrim have become long-lasting titles thanks to the efforts of modders, and it's rather common to hear stories of enterprising modders eventually joining studios or creating their own works. Famously, game developer and composer of one of the most iconic boss themes ever, Toby Fox, made mods for the Mother series before creating Undertale. With how much of gaming history can be attributed to modders, it should come as no surprise that the battle royale genre can trace its roots back to the community.
One of Gaming's First Battle Royales Was in Minecraft
Just as Minecraft modders were able to create an open-world Pokémon game before the release of Scarlet and Violet, the battle royale genre has roots in the game as well. Minecraft Hunger Games was exactly what it sounds like: a plugin for the game that allowed players to reenact the titular survival game from the books and movies. Released in 2012, not long after the first The Hunger Games movie came out, the format began picking up speed as popular YouTubers at the time began to take part.
During this time, another mod, called DayZ, was growing in popularity within the tactical military shooter Arma 2. Unlike the arcade-style mayhem of titles like Call of Duty Zombies, DayZ was focused on survival, resource collection, and careful engagements to keep from being killed by zombies or other players. It was this mod, combined with the inspiration of the Japanese film Battle Royale, that led Brendan Greene -- better known online as PlayerUnknown -- to create the mod DayZ: Battle Royale. This mod would later see its name changed to PUBG: Battlegrounds.
PUBG Paved the Way for Battle Royales
Having become the fifth best-selling video game of all time, beating out titles like Super Mario Bros. or any individual Pokémon game, PUBG became one of the biggest games on the planet when it was released in 2017. The game broke and continues to hold a number of world records for its player count and sales figures. This success prompted Epic Games (currently working on a PvE base-building game called Fortnite: Save the World) to add a battle royale mode to its title. Fortnite Battle Royale has since become one of the most influential (and infamous, considering the game's legal trouble with micro-transactions) games of the late 2010s.
The genre continues to see new attempts and reimaginings, such as the Wipeout-styled Fall Guys. It will likely continue to see popularity for much of the 2020s. Battle royales have managed to capture a style of competitive and creative play that will always inspire players to push harder to take victory, and the creation of the entire genre can be traced back to dedicated fans creating mods and resources for their favorite games. The story of Minecraft Hunger Games and DayZ Battle Royale are proof of the power of mods, and even adding a pet deer to The Sims 4 shows this same passion that enterprising fans have for their favorite games.