“Fortnite And Travis Scott Present: Astronomical” was a global “can’t-miss” event for nearly 28 million people around the world in April 2020, right after the pandemic hit and the ambiguity of a closed, socially-distanced world started. Friends and communities united with each other inside Fortnite to experience not only a concert, but a genre defying and truly social experience. The experience was attended over 45 million times across five events -- meaning that tens of millions of people participated in the event multiple times -- and has now been watched more over 200 million times on Travis Scott’s official channels.

Fortnite players value authenticity above all else when it comes to the brand and in-game experience, and the genesis of Astronomical lives up to that expectation. Travis Scott had previously set a Twitch viewership record while playing Fortnite with Ninja, Drake, and NFL Wide Receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Shortly after, both parties started organically talking about a potential collaboration -- put simply, we were fans of each other’s work.

Over the course of a year, conversations gave way to a defined creative brief (see next response) and production kicked off prior to the pandemic. When COVID hit, several elements of the campaign changed and resulted in realignment -- including an immediate pivot to all-digital promotion and an even stronger focus on delivering a zeitgeist-defining social experience for both Travis fans and Fortnite players around the world who were still adjusting to to being home (from school, work, family, etc) in lockdown.

Astronomical was conceptualized and developed over several months (both before and during the early months of the pandemic), with three core goals:

-- Celebrate an immersive, social music experience by creating a global, “can’t-miss” cultural phenomenon via in-game hype build-up, worldwide social campaigns, and triple-A star power to drive a massive spike in player engagement.

-- Position Fortnite as the number one social platform for culturally significant moments and partnerships in entertainment; demonstrate how major talent can reinvent how they interact with their fans and culture on a global scale.

-- Work with an artist who is bigger than music -- someone who is already part of the Fortnite journey, can seamlessly integrate a digital experience with exclusive physical memorabilia, and most importantly can authentically build and command a fantastical world for millions of fans.

Astronomical presented a breakout moment for Fortnite and the overall entertainment industry to demonstrate the freedom, power, and interactivity of games and virtual events inside them. Because of the scale of the opportunity, the strategy behind Astronomical was to engage not only gamers and Fortnite fans, but all music fans, via authentic and native ways in areas where this audience spends time (TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, YouTube, Spotify, etc).

In addition to reaching new audiences, it was important to also drive anticipation and hype inside the game, including the creation of digital appointment-setting posters inside Fortnite and the slow building of a stage on the island to misdirect expectations towards a traditional linear event.

Most importantly, it was critical that the actual experience reflect Epic Games’ and Fortnite’s approach to partnerships and experiences for our players -- an event that was authentic, unique, immersive, and most importantly, hugely entertaining.

In addition to engaging Fortnite’s millions of players inside the game via posters and the creation of a stage, digital and physical executions outside of the game were also released, including: exclusive physical merch, native Spotify integrations to engage Travis’ community, digital advertising, and consistent social media engagement across Fortnite and Travis’ channels. Nearly 150 influencers around the world were granted in-game Astronomical items, resulting in over 50 million views and driving people back into the experience to enjoy for a second time with more friends.

For the event, Fortnite’s engineering, design, art, effects, and other technical teams built a truly immersive experience for players using Unreal Engine that drew heavily from Travis Scott’s recently-released Astroworld album and iconography. Flying in from another planet (Astroworld), players were transported between worlds while watching Travis perform -- ultimately ending in space as his new track with Kid Cudi debuted inside the event.

The event exceeded all goals and expectations, both internally and externally: 12.3 million Fortnite players experienced the event concurrently (live) during the first event, with a total of 27.7 million unique players in-game participating 45.8 million times across five events -- meaning that millions of players experienced Astronomical multiple times. The physical merch and apparel from Travis Scott x Fortnite by Cactus Jack sold out within minutes.

Additionally, Astronomical/Travis Scott trended #1 in the US and #3 globally on Twitter; registered a 5-year record for Travis Scott-related searches in Google according to Google Trends; increased Travis Scotts’ streams on music channels during and after the event; resulted in a record-breaking #1 song release on Spotify and #1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100; had a > 90% positive sentiment score on social media; and currently has registered more than 200 million views on Travis’ official YouTube channel.