H1Z1 PS4 already has 4.5 million players, and Daybreak Games is giving out free loot to celebrate

H1Z1: Battle Royale launched its open beta on PlayStation 4 last week and, to the surprise of absolutely no one, has already experienced exponential success.

Over the weekend, Daybreak Games announced that the H1Z1: Battle Royale open beta had been downloaded over 4.5 million times on PS4, having only just hit 1.5 million players a few days before that, quickly making it one of the most popular games on the console to date. 

To be fair, these stats are still nothing compared to Fortnite Battle Royale's playerbase, which has over ten times the amount of downloads (albeit across multiple platforms) against H1Z1's fledgling community on console, but it's a success story for the free to play battle royale game nonetheless.

H1Z1's popularity is especially impressive considering how difficult it can be to release a battle royale that manages to even make a dent in a market currently dominated by Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (case in point: Radical Heights). Whether H1Z1: Battle Royale continues to flourish on PS4 is anyone's guess, but the fact that it's hit the console before PUBG (which it holds the most similarities to) is a positive omen for the future of Daybreak's flagship IP. 

To celebrate the news, Daybreak has awarded a free weapon skin, the Blue Barbed Hellfire 4-6, to every PS4 player who downloaded the game since reaching this milestone, which you can find in your inventory as soon as you've logged into the game on the console. Additionally, Duos mode is now unlocked and available for any teams of two to try their luck in the last person standing PvP matches of shooting and looting. 

If you want to read the latest patch notes, which have also brought in a number of hot fixes to stabilise gameplay and server connection on PS4, you can check out the full rundown right here. Otherwise, equip that swanky new Uzi skin and get back into the fold; those matches aren't going to win themselves. 

For more battle royale madness, check out our list of the best games like PUBG or the best games like Fortnite to find out which island deathmatch experience is right for you.