The hit video game Fortnite is facing a major server outage following a problem which arose after Wednesday’s update to its free Battle Royale mode.

The title, which was developed by US-based Epic Games, has more than 45 million players worldwide.

The issue has meant that some gamers have been unable to log into Battle Royale’s last player standing challenge on Xbox, PlayStation, PC or mobile.

A statement by Epic has blamed the glitch on a database fault.

The company said this had made its login and matchmaking services unstable.

“Services should begin to recover over the next couple of hours,” it said in its most recent update.

“Due to issues with our account system, players on PlayStation 4 will be unable to login for an additional period of time.”

The firm has also been updating fans on its Twitter feed and one expert said that such outages were not unusual.

“It’s not ideal from their perspective because they have millions of players that want to play the game,” said Piers Harding-Roll, head of games at analyst firm IHS Markit.

“But the most important thing is that people are given regular updates, which Epic Games appears to be doing.”

‘Addictive’

Fortnite launched last June as a paid game.

However, the Battle Royale mode – which pits 100 players against each other – is free to play.

It makes money by selling costumes and other cosmetic in-game items.

These generated more than $15m (£10.5m) on iOS alone over its first three weeks on Apple’s mobile platform – which it joined on 15 March – according to one analytics firm.

Some parents have raised concerns about the amount of time their children are spending within Fortnite’s cartoon-like fights.

However, one academic recently cautioned against describing the game as being “addictive”.

Fortnite has been nominated for two prizes at Thursday evening’s Bafta Games Awards.