Who Purchases and Why?: Explaining Motivations for In-game Purchasing in the Online Survival Game Fortnite

As a popular and free-to-play multiplayer online survival game, Fortnite not only offers novel game mechanics but also allows players to purchase special in-game items using real money. Based on an online survey of 215 Fortnite players, this paper investigates in-game behaviors that can be used to explain who is more likely to spend money in Fortnite. Specifically, players' motivations to spend real-life money were categorized; how the amount of spending was correlated with different motivations and behavioral factors was also analyzed. In contrast to prior virtual goods literature that associates in-game purchasing with social and task motivations, we found that motivations to make in-game purchases in Fortnite were less about assimilating with others and more about looking visually unique from others. We conclude by discussing how the survival genre of battle royale and other game affordances may explain these findings.