Sozanne Collin's book series "The Hunger Games" sparked worldwide attention as a movie adaption brought the idea of a "last man standing" to a wider audience of moviegoers instead of bookreaders. The idea remained the same: A number of participants are forced to fight each other until one participant remains. However, The Hunger Games would be the foundation for the Battle Royale craze today.

Minecraft Survival Games was inspired by The Hunger Games, letting players fight each other until one player was left. The first ever Minecraft Survival Games was held on April 2012, and consisted of many popular Minecraft Youtubers such as Antvenom and CaptainSparklez.

In 2013, PLAYERUNKNOWN created the "Battle Royale" mod for the already popular Arma 2 mod, "DayZ." The mod was later updated to support Arma 3 and serves as the first realistic Battle Royale gamemode.

H1Z1: King of the Kill was one of two games developed under the H1Z1 title. It was a success, bringing 150,000 concurrent players at it's peak. Players would randomly spawn around the map and find loot scattered instead of spawning players in a circle, which would eventually become the new standard for Battle Royale.

PUBG came out in 2017 and is considered the defining game of the Battle Royale genre. It reached popularity never seen by any other game at this time, having 3.2 million concurrent players at its peak. Instead of being spawned on the island, players would skydive from a plane, which would later become a staple in a Battle Royale game. PUBG can also be considered the most suuccesful realistic Battle Royale. However, PUBG would inspire another very popular battle royale, Fortnite.

Fortnite: Battle Royale was a seperate gamemode based off of the existing not-as-succesful Fortnite: Save The World. Being free to play, on consoles and PC, and having a more kid-friendly cartoon style, Fortnite brought in many children with its bright outfits and quirky dances. It also introduced a building mechanic, where people could build cover, which would prove essential in the gameplay. Fortnite would also prove to be more popular, scoring 8.3 million concurrent players at its peak. However, the current state of Fortnite is declining, as players are moving to other games like Minecraft because of the persistent problems Fortnite has.

Apex Legends was made to jump on the Battle Royale hypetrain. In Apex Legends, you could choose a "Legend", each with special and unique abilities, similar to already existing games like Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch. Apex Legends pulled in 2 million concurrent players at its peak, but would come nowhere near the popularity of Fortnite and PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS.