Fortnite goes down with in-game apocalypse leaving thousands of players watching a black hole
The popular online video game Fortnite has ended its first chapter with an apocalyptic explosion – leaving thousands of gamers unable to play.
The multiplayer game showed the event, which involved an asteroid hitting the virtual island on which it is set, to all players at the same time on Sunday.
Its maker Epic Games had previously said that the event, called "The End" would take place on Sunday October 13, and showed a countdown timer leading up to it, but not specified its nature.
Fortnite allows players to fight on a virtual battlefield to be the last one standing. The game has been running for 10 seasons and now has 250m players.
Videos posted online by players show a series of rockets striking rifts in the planet's atmosphere before all players are blown off the island and everything is sucked into a black hole.
The in-game apocalypse had been foreshadowed by mysterious events throughout the first chapter, including the appearance of bunkers, countdown clocks and a meteor crash.
The game itself has been unavailable to players since Sunday's event, including menu page, and the game's Twitter account has also been wiped.
On Monday hundreds of thousands of people were watching a livestream of the game's current screen, a black hole surrounded by plumes of light, on YouTube and game streaming site Twitch.
A trailer purporting to show the game's new features in the next season also began circulating among fans.
Fortnite has exploded in popularity in the past two years due to its customisable characters, lighthearted storytelling, multiplayer structure and bright design.
