Fortnite reportedly switching to Unreal Engine 5 with Season 9

A line-up of Fortnite characters from the latest season — (Image credit: Epic Games)

Fortnite will reportedly switch to Unreal Engine 5 with the arrival of Season 9.

The claim comes from Hypex, a known Fortnite leaker and dataminer. In a message shared on Twitter, Hypex claimed that Fortnite would be transferring to run on the new-gen Unreal Engine 5 at some point during Season 9, as the previously-planned Season 8 switch has been delayed.

I don't know if modding releases with UE5 btw, it seems unlikely to me.. It would only make sense to release it in 20.00 (Chapter 3) to hype it up even more.BUT if they want to release it before i think it would be a preview/alpha.. We'll have to wait and see!August 17, 2021

We've actually known for a while now that Epic wants to switch Fortnite to run on the Unreal Engine 5. When the impressive new engine was first unveiled in June 2020, Epic stated in a blog post that it would first be launching Fortnite on the forthcoming PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles later in the year, before turning its attention to porting the game to Unreal Engine 5.

At the time, Epic revealed that it was aiming to bring Fortnite to Unreal Engine 5 in "mid-2021." However, this no longer appears to be the case, as we're now counting down the days until September, meaning Fortnite's switch to the new engine might have been delayed twice now, if the report from Hypex is accurate.

If the claim does prove to be true, we'll still be waiting a fair few months for Fortnite's big engine change. Right now, we're in the midst of Fortnite Season 7, and Epic hasn't even revealed the release date for Season 8 yet. Considering Fortnite's seasonal events can last upwards of three months, the switch to Unreal Engine 5 might not even come about until 2022.