Popular 3rd-person shooter game takes world by storm—and gets the X-rated treatment. 

The online video game Fornite hits headlines almost daily, accompanied by persuasive articles about its addictive nature. In extreme cases, they include stories of sending children to rehabilitation clinics and even an appearance on Dr. Phil.

Based on an island, the free-to-play game is available for download for mobile, console, and desktop. It sets 100 players against each other to collect weapons and fight in a bid to become the last person standing.

The game is updated regularly and with more than 250 million registered players (up to 84% of whom are male). It has become a massive hit for creator Epic Games.

However, the game has expanded in unexpected directions, even receiving X-rated treatment with erotic parodies [NSFW] emerging. One search on any given adult content site will deliver thousands of results for “Fortnite.” The results vary in quality and theme but usually referencing one or more of the game’s characters.

With Fortnite tending to cater to a younger audience, largely those who are under the age of 16, it raises questions of the intended audience of the Fortnite-themed content that is taking over adult sites.

This article aims to examine why Fortnite pornography has become so popular, looking at how it features within pornography clips, the sexualization of female characters within the game, and what this means for the future of ethical adult content consumption.

What is Fortnite pornography?

The Fortnite content is immediately divided into videos using human actors and those who only use animated characters. For the human content, it is made up of those taking advantage of a trend and incorporating the game into their scenes.

This includes referencing the “obsessive” nature of the game, often with one actor playing the game during the performance of sex acts. However, the dominant style of pornography from the searches is the animated side, which uses the artwork from the game.

Pornography creators, often appearing to be amateurs, use video clips from the game and manipulate them into sexual content, as well more advanced creators who take the character art and animate it themselves.

Many of the videos also include sound, taken from other pornographic videos and overdubbed for the animation.  

Servers going down means Fortnite pornography searches skyrocket

Pornhub stated that for each period of server downtime, including for the purpose of updates, the launch of new seasons as well as server crashes searches for Fortnite pornography increase exponentially and are particularly driven with the release of each character or “skin” design.

Character skins are usually designed to represent male or female bodies, and are available for purchase through the Fortnite store, for virtual currency V-Bucks.

Meet Calamity, Fortnite’s very own adult star

The most important thing in the Season 6 update pic.twitter.com/FrnzFsF1Fl

— FaZe Agony (@Agony) September 27, 2018

The most popular character is “Calamity,” a female presenting fighter with long pink hair, a white tank top complete with large illustrated breasts, bare midriff, and denim shorts. Pornhub searches for “Calamity” reached 2.5 million in the year of its release.

To add to the appeal of this character, the game animators initially provided Calamity with “breast physics”—realistic movement of the breasts of the character, which is particularly evident with actions such as running or jumping.

This was promptly removed from the game following mixed feedback from players on Twitter but remains a feature within the pornographic video clips.

Further increasing the popularity of female Fortnite characters are professional players, both those who compete and those who stream their content on sites such as Twitch and YouTube.

A majority appear to prefer to use female-representing characters and cite the “streamlined” female frame as their aesthetic preference, as well as the differences in outfits available for the male and female characters.

The ethics of animated adult-content are complex

Animated Fortnite pornography follows on the coat-tails other animated content such as Hentai pornography—Japanese anime-style pornography as well as pornographic content using the likeness of cartoons such as Family Guy or The Simpsons. This content is often used for comedy-purposes but is also chosen by those looking for non-human erotic content due to taste and also perceived ethical considerations.

However, the absence of human participants does not guarantee ethical adult content. This is clearly demonstrated by the Japanese content called “Lolicon” or Lolita Complex content, which has been used as a way of portraying hardcore pornography or acts that would be illegal with human actors, including incest, rape, and pedophilia.

This animated content has been made illegal in countries such as the UK, Australia, and some US states. Therefore, those watching animated content should still be mindful of the law and cautious over the content they get from non-mainstream sites.

Who is the intended audience for Fortnite adult content?

With the popularity of Fortnite pornography being so clear through the Pornhub [NSFW] statistics, it raises questions on who this content is created for. Although Epic Games have not released the statistics of those playing Fortnite under the age of 18, Business of Apps reported that that 15% of school-aged players have skipped classes in order to play the game and many Twitch and YouTube channels aim for ‘”family-friendly” content to appeal to the younger game audience.

So with Fortnite-themed adult content, there has to be a greater understanding of what demographic it is appealing to. Concerns about children accessing pornography are a constant concern for politicians and have even encouraged the passing of new laws in the UK that require pornography sites to verify the user’s age. Adult content that references a game that is so popular with under-18s and schoolchildren should be raising red flags.

As a postgraduate researcher studying online sexual behavior and relationships, in the coming weeks, I will write about pornography usage, legislation, and intimacy on the web.

Image sources 《要塞英雄》實現用戶高留存的設計祕訣 玩家心理,