Battle Royales are the new "Doom Clones"

Let's be clear from the start: "battle royale" (or "royale" as I prefer it) is at most a genre and at least a game mode. It is not, as some may argue, an intellectual property. Players are reporting fatigue from all of the new battle royale announcements, but this isn't a fad either. This is the latest version of the Doom Clone phenomena.

Doom's Dominance

When Doom first arrived in 1993, it wasn't the first of its kind. But it quickly became the biggest due to a smart shareware distribution model and its easily modifiable nature. The game was so popular that other games with Doom's gameplay and aesthetic flooded the market, all coined "Doom clones" for a time. Eventually the world ended up with so many variations of the game type, we settled on "first person shooter" as a more accurate genre label.

Player Unknown's Battlegrounds wasn't the first attempt at a large scale last-one-standing game, but it certainly made the biggest waves. It dominated the Steam marketplace for months and brought the style of game into sharp focus. This was followed within a few months by Fortnite: Battle Royale, which has completely dominated the mindspace of a certain demographic since its arrival. Since then there have been numerous announcements of new games focusing on the royale style of play, or adding the mode just as Fortnite did. 

PUBG daily players (SteamDB)

Deathmatch Enhanced

While I believe the rate of games focusing solely on this style of play will slow, the concept is just too ripe to not remain a core part of multiplayer games. This is an evolution of deathmatch. Better network and graphics capabilities, and a desire for storied session-based gameplay has led us to this highly popular mode, and I think it's here to stay for a number of reasons:

• The mode fits into nearly any game with direct PvP, mostly because:
• The definition of a royale mode is incredibly flexible. The only real requirements seem to be "if you die you're out" and "last person alive wins." The ways that can manifest are otherwise up to the developer.
• It's extremely watchable. As mentioned, a story of sorts unfolds throughout each match which is bite-sized and interesting to see. Many of today's biggest streamers play exclusively royale-style games.

Twitch viewership. 3 of top 4 are royale games

A Gaming Staple

I believe royale modes will now be one of the new "expected" PvP modes, especially in shooters. I predict the match size will trend downwards over time instead of staying at the usual 100 players it's at now, due to matchmaking concerns and the difficulties of creating a good, large map. It is also probable the mass fervor for the mode will die down, but it's a part of our canon now. Battle royales are as flexible as first person shooters, and I'm excited to see what other developers can do with the concept.