Travis Scott's 'Fortnite' concert was the game's most visually impressive event to date

• On Thursday night, Travis Scott held the first of several virtual concerts in "Fortnite," the battle royale game that has become an integral part of pop culture.
• The concert was both interactive and visually stunning, featuring a giant Travis Scott avatar and a number of different animated effects.
• It was arguably "Fortnite's" biggest, most impressive event to date, drawing in over 12 million viewers and surpassing previous in-game concert events in terms of visual scope.
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Travis Scott recently took his musical talents to what is becoming one of the most popular virtual arenas: "Fortnite," the battle royale game that's now an integral part of the pop culture zeitgeist. The concert, which took place on Thursday night, drew in an audience of over 12 million, making it comparable to the average "Monday Night Football" audience. The performance, which was the first in a series of five Scott will make in "Fortnite," was not only one of the game's biggest audience-wise, but also arguably it's most visually stunning.

Last year's Marshmello "Fortnite" concert gave a glimpse into what a virtual, in-game concert can look like, but Travis Scott's performance was on a whole other level: with a gigantic, animated Scott traversing the island as he performed and stunning visuals supplementing the experience, the concert was truly immersive and testament to "Fortnite's" potential to become more than just a game. 

While the concert began on a stage, the scope quickly expanded.

While there had been in-game set-up for the concert in the days leading up to the event, the stage that had been built near the Sweaty Sands beach quickly became unimportant as the concert really kicked into gear. A giant Travis Scott blasted onto the scene, backed up by an "Astroworld" inspired, audio planet. "Sicko Mode" was the first song of the evening.

Players were launched into the air at various points during the concert, with environmental changes occurring in time with the music.

At one point during the concert, the world was suddenly on fire as Scott turned into a cyborg.

Things got quite a bit more colorful as the environment dimmed and Scott's circulatory system went rainbow.

Later in the concert, players were submerged underwater.

There was more neon lighting as Scott's performance avatar's costume changed, featuring the artist's face logo.

Towards the end of the concert, players flew through space leading up to the finale.

Compared against other Fortnite events, Scott's performance was on a whole other level.

As previously stated, Travis Scott's performance wasn't "Fortnite's" first concert. The biggest prior music event in the game was Marshmello's Feb. 2019 concert, which was performed and streamed live. While that event had the advantage of live performance (Travis Scott's performance was pre-recorded), the visual scale wasn't nearly as massive. The concert remained mostly concentrated on the stage itself throughout the event.

"Fortnite" is also partially known for its promotional tie-ins, like a "Star Wars" event prior to "The Rise of Skywalker" or the premiere of Quibi's "Punk'd" reboot that took place in the game itself. That's not to mention the game-specific events like "Fortnite's" 2018 rocket launch. Despite the scope of all of those events, "Fortnite" continues to surpass itself.

What was special about Travis Scott's concert, however, was the fact that it took "Fortnite's" wacky, nigh-limitless visual capabilities and ran with them. Furthermore, as The Verge's Andrew Webster reported, Epic Games seemed to have learned from previous concert experiences, turning off player interfaces to let them get a better view of the visuals and limiting emotes to ones that fit the vibe of the concert of itself.

Overall, Travis Scott's Thursday night concert is testament to "Fortnite's" potential to become more than a game, which falls in like with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney's ambitions for the product. If you missed the spectacle, you still have a few chances through April 24 and 25 to catch the "Astronomical" event. 

• Read more:
• More than 12 million players tuned in for Travis Scott's 'Fortnite' event. That's roughly the same size as the average 'Monday Night Football' audience.
• More than 10 million 'Fortnite' players logged on to watch a 10-minute concert over the weekend, proving there's more to the craze than just playing the game
• 'Fortnite' was the most important video game of this decade, and it will be for the next one too
• YouTube's list of the 10 most-watched video games of 2019 proves that new games aren't the most popular online

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