Epic Games' battle royale title Fortnite has hit a brand new milestone of 40m players.

That's according to lead systems designer Eric Williamson, who told Glixel that the playerbase has increased massively from the 30m figure announced back in December.

What's more, the title has peaked at two million concurrent players. That's across all platforms, with Epic declining to provide a breakdown of this figure. 

Epic has bold ambitions for the game, too, with Williams saying that the game might be the biggest battle royale game in the Western world.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Williamson said: "Some of the folk around the office are saying hey, we could be the biggest Battle Royale game in the western world, which is crazy. Some people are saying we could be the biggest and best-played game [full stop] in the western world."

Regardless of whether it is the biggest game in the Western world, Fortnite is on track to Epic's biggest release to date. 

Comparisons are being made, perhaps unfairly, to PUBG Corp's Playerunknown's Battlegrounds. That title has more than 30m downloads under its belt and a concurrent player figure of three million people. That title is premium, while Fortnite is free-to-play. 

Epic has optimised its Unreal Engine 4 for battle royale games but has run into trouble with PUBG Corp for getting into this sector. 

Fortnite launched in July, racking up half a million sales in its first day. The battle royale mode hit the game in September.