How Juice WRLD Arrived in Fortnite

Carmela Wallace, the mother of Juice WRLD, the Chicago sing-rapper who died five years ago as a rising star at age 21, still sometimes refers to her son in the present tense. Especially when it comes to his love of video games.

“He’s always loved video games,” Wallace said in a recent interview. “It was his way of having a moment to himself, where he could escape. Because he dealt with anxiety and depression and stress. You know, he left his mom’s house to become famous.”

“So that was his way of just having something normal,” she added. “He had a console wherever he went.”

One of his favorites was Fortnite, the immersive adventure-slash-fighting game, with millions of players at a time and, on special occasions, in-game concerts. Those can be big enough to make a real-world splash, like Travis Scott’s animated performance in April 2020, at the height of Covid-19 lockdowns, which drew nearly 28 million players across five showings.

Since then, there have been more shows by stars including Metallica, Ariana Grande, J Balvin and Eminem, whose appearance a year ago was such a draw that fans had difficulty logging in. Wallace, who oversees her son’s estate, approved his appearance in Fortnite’s latest musical event, the November-long “Chapter 2 Remix” — a nostalgic throwback to the game’s design circa 2020 — that also included Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Ice Spice, and culminated in a brief but elaborate virtual performance on Saturday afternoon.

That event, called “Remix: The Finale,” inside Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode, lasted less than 15 minutes, but by one measurement it surpassed the previous record held by Scott. “Remix: The Finale” drew more than 14 million concurrent players for its first showing, according to Epic Games, the company behind the title, compared with about 12 million for Scott’s debut.