'Millions' of Fortnite users attend in-game Marshmello concert

Nicole Bogart, Special to CTVNews.ca</span>
Published Monday, February 4, 2019 11:42AM EST

TORONTO—Maroon 5 fans may have been disappointed by the band’s lacklustre Super Bowl halftime show, but “millions” of Fortnite players were dazzled by a virtual concert from D.J. Marshmello over the weekend—which begs the question, are video games the new hot concert venue?

Marshmello set up a virtual stage inside the third-person shooter game on Saturday, playing a 10-minute set which included the recent hits Everyday and Happier. During the event, players were met with only one competitive mode called “Showtime” which gave them front-row access to a large stage complete with a custom Marshmello avatar.

Fortnite’s popularity took off last year after the release of a free “battle royale” version that lets up to 100 players drop into a battlefield unarmed, scrounging for weapons in a fight for survival. The game boasts over 125 million active players, according to developer Epic Games.

Marshmello took to Twitter after the concert to announce that “millions” of players had tuned into the event.

Epic Games has not confirmed the exact number of players who attended the virtual concert; however, the developer disabled every other player mode of the game during the ten minute event, forcing any active user into the concert.

The concert has been watched over 11 million times on Marshmello’s YouTube channel.

But this isn’t the first-ever live performance in a video game, despite Marshmello and several other sources claiming it was.

In 2018, players of the popular sandbox video game Minecraft hosted a “Coalchella” festival, a pun on the real-like Coachella festival that attracts some of the biggest names in music. But virtual concerts became an important part of the user experience in Second Life, a virtual world where users can create their own online life.

U2 famously gave a live performance in Second Life in 2008. According to BBC, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performed live in the game in 2007, and BBC Radio 1 simulcast its One Big Weekend event in the game in 2006.

But Marshmello’s Fortnite concert did offer a different type of virtual experience for gamers. Players were not only invited to make their avatars dance around, the game sent players into zero gravity and even allowed them to dance next to the D.J. himself on stage.

“The Marshmello event was easily the best event in Fortnite. So sick that they could do something like this,” one user commented on Twitter.

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We made history today! The first ever live virtual concert inside of @fortnite with millions of people in attendance. So insane, thank you epic games and everyone who made this possible! pic.twitter.com/xdaNGnyMr9
— marshmello (@marshmellomusic) February 2, 2019