Avalanche Shooter ‘Off the Grid’ Becomes Top Free Title on Epic Games Store

Following the early access release of Off the Grid earlier this week, the Avalanche-based battle royale shooter is rising the ranks of the Epic Game Store.

Developed by Gunzilla Games, Off the Grid rose to the top of the storefront’s Most Popular Free-to-Play PC Games list on Friday, topping Epic’s own massively popular Fortnite and Rocket League. It’s also the first title listed on the store’s Trending list.

The game pits players against each other in a similar way to other battle royale shooters like Fortnite and Apex Legends: shoot, loot, and survive as the map gets gradually smaller. At the same time, the game features its own Avalanche L1 (aka subnet) for its upcoming GUN token and in-game items that can be minted and traded as NFTs.

On the streaming site Twitch, Off The Grid was among the most watched games Friday. With 148,000 viewers spread across dozens of streamers, Off the Grid commanded a comparable audience to established titles like League of Legends and Grand Theft Auto V.

The Spanish streamer IlloJuan had attained the largest audience among Off the Grid streamers Friday, blasting away at enemies among 28,000 viewers. Meanwhile, Twitch viewers had consumed nearly 100,000 hours of gameplay since Tuesday, according to TwitchTracker.

Off The Grid’s game store traction was highlighted by Mathew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck. On Twitter (aka X), he wrote Friday that “the success showcases how blockchain tech can empower players with real asset ownership and a decentralized economy.”

When early access opened for the battle royale shooter on Tuesday, however, the title was released on consoles and PC in limited form, with just one map and mode available in the preview. Off the Grid players will also eventually be able to mint rare weapons and items as NFTs, but that implementation hasn’t been fully realized yet.

An early access version of the game, played by Decrypt on PlayStation 5, denominated missions and in-game items in Off the Grid’s GUN token. Still, the token hasn’t been launched on Avalanche mainnet yet, with questions still surrounding Sony and Microsoft’s stance on whether they would welcome blockchain in games for their respective consoles.

Many gameplay clips circulating Twitter Friday included the hashtag #OTGpartner, indicating that they were being compensated for showcasing the game. That included the popular streamer Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, who was on his second day of streaming the title. Other streamers such as Tyler “Ninja” Blevins had been streaming earlier this week in partnership with Gunzilla Games, with Ninja even getting his own in-game character skin.

Edited by Andrew Hayward