[goobynight]

Games as a social space aren't new.

Games that attract nearly everyone, even in just some age groups, to one social space are rare.

You won't be joining say...an "EVE Online" discord unless you have bought the game and want to play it. Fortnite is as free as Facebook and is at critical mass for many groups. It ends up becoming the lingua franca of gaming socialization.

[shiburizu]

League of Legends and GTA5 come off the top of my head not including other examples mentioned here. Culture phenomena videogames have come and gone, this time Fortnite just has a bigger marketing campaign.

Discord is definitely not even a space dedicated to games either (I don't think your EVE example holds up), it's just where people gather to play games and end up using it for everything else too. Everything you've mentioned still definitely applies to a Discord account, free like free beer and the envy of so many other chat platforms.