What indie hackers can learn from Fortnite

Before Fortnite came along, 99% of video games companies had a "top-down" approach to growth. Awareness was the number one priority and nothing else really mattered.

Games would go all-in on one big launch, sell 85% of gross revenue in the first week, and then (as the graph shows) interest would drop off pretty quickly. This reminds me of most Indie Hacker projects (well, at least my last two efforts!).

When Fortnite launched in 2017, they didn't have a big budget or reputation. They couldn't simply rely on initial awareness. So, instead of looking at growth "top-down" they were forced to look at it "bottom-up".

The theory was if they could nail conversion, referral and retention (the cheaper parts of the growth funnel) they could lay solid foundations for growth down the line. And that's what they did. No big launch spike, instead 9 months of slow and steady growth before momentum grew.

As an Indie Hacker you want to be like Fortnite. Don''t put all your eggs in the launch bag. It's more efficient to patch up the existing holes in your growth funnel so that when people visit your landing page they actually convert, don't churn and refer friends!

If you enjoyed this, I've wrote a longer article where I break down how Fortnite nailed each stage of the growth funnel (awareness, conversion, referral, retention) one by one.

Any questions, let me know :)

#growth #fyi