The Fortnite earthquake event has already started, as cracks begin to appear across the battle royale map

When elements found in recent Fortnite update files referred to a 'Cracken' event, the rumours started to fly that something big could be on the cards - after meteor showers, ice storms, and more events seen previously, this wasn't too much of a stretch. Soon afterwards, the island was shook by a series of earthquakes, creating ground-splitting fissures that could potentially reshape the landscape as we crash into Fortnite Season 8.

That's because... *ahem* giant cracks have appeared in Fortnite, with the first shown in the image below, which is found sprawled across the terrain just southwest of Tomato Temple. This tectonic upset was the first of many cracks (stop giggling) to show up since the Fortnite earthquake event began - these are being tracked by Reddit user WhoWantSomeHugs, and their latest map shows the divots are now spreading from Pleasant Park to the Block, Wailing Woods to Retail Row, and more.

Streamer Scenario has also been compiling a Twitter thread, showing all of the fissures along with the dates and times they first appeared. According to information datamined from the update files, there are two final earthquakes due on Tuesday, February 27 at 08:30 ET / 13:30 GMT and 15:18 ET / 20:18 GMT. We wait with anticipation to see what effect these will have once the final rumblings have occurred.

Of course, Epic is still staying mum about the whole thing, and no one quite knows for sure where this is all heading. But, with Apex Legends continuing to rise to the top of the battle royale foodchain, you can be sure that the Fortnite development team is working on something to bring all the attention back to its own island of last-person-standing death matches - and what better way than a landscape altering tremor?

We've reached out to Epic for comment on the cracks (seriously, enough with the giggling), and we'll be sure to let you know once anything changes in-game. Just make sure you're not in any of Tilted Towers' skyscrapers when the tremors start, as I'm pretty sure they weren't built with any quake-proof blueprints...

Check out all the Fortnite Overtime Challenges for a chance to get the Season 8 Battle Pass for free when it kicks off in just a few days' time!

Iain Wilson
Guides Editor

Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor. His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has over 500 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.