Shroud explains why he won’t play Fortnite despite its popularity
As one of the most popular Twitch streamers on the platform, Michael ‘shroud‘ Grzesiek is somewhat of an anomaly given that he almost never plays the website’s most popular game – Fortnite.
With over 5 million followers on his Twitch channel, shroud, a former professional CS:GO player, is truly among the upper echelon of video game livestreaming, and has maintained this position in spite of paying little attention to the most popular game.
Fortnite’s battle royale mode, released in September 2017, has since become the most streamed and watched game on both Twitch and YouTube, and skyrocketed the careers of streamers who dedicated their content to it.
Shroud has become one of the biggest streamers in the world since retiring from CS:GO.Although shroud has played the game occasionally, mostly during early 2018, he has scarcely even mentioned the game since – which has perplexed some of his viewers.
During a stream on January 18, shroud was debating on what game he could play, discussing with his chat, when one fan suggested Fortnite – but the streamer was clearly not interested.
“Bro, I’m not playing Fortnite – Fortnite’s for losers,” shroud joked, continuing “I’m just kidding, but, actually though…”
This isn’t actually why shroud avoids Fortnite though – as he explained in a stream on January 13. Despite Fortnite’s massive popularity, admitting that he has likely missed out on “millions” by not playing it, he says he never does anything in streaming just for the money.
“For sure, I’ve lost millions by not playing [PUBG Mobile] and Fortnite. But how many millions does one man need? I think I’m going to be ok, I’m making an excellent living. I feel like you need to be happy with what you’re doing – I’ve never been about the money.”
He goes on to say that he would never sacrifice his “happiness” just to make more money,
Shroud has focused his efforts on other battle royale games like PUBG and Call of Duty’s Blackout, as well as ‘variety’ streaming, playing all manner of new releases and lesser known titles.
It’s testament to his incredible skill and entertaining persona that tens of thousands of viewers continue to tune in regardless of which game he is playing.