Fortnite is finally back after some of its longest unplanned downtime ever

News
By published

More than 16 hours later, the Fortnite downtime struggle is finally over

A Fortnite character with a Remote Explosive detonator.

Fortnite Battle Royale's extended downtime is finally at an end, according to updates from the developers and a quick, definitely-not-playing-on-work-hours test from yours truly. Though the game is semi-regularly taken offline to apply updates and address server stability issues, this was the longest period of time that Fortnite has been offline since its popularity started skyrocketing early this year.

Here's the official word from Epic:

Epic identified issues with Fortnite's account services at around 2 pm PDT on Wednesday and the studio took its servers offline for emergency maintenance about five hours after that. That means the official downtime lasted at least 16 hours (potentially more, if you're waiting to play on PS4). It reminds me of the old days, waiting hours upon hours for Fortnite update 2.3.0 to go live back in January.

I'm not trying to put Epic down - I think it's pretty remarkable how the company has scaled up its infrastructure to account for Fortnite's phenom status while still delivering regular updates filled with cool new stuff like the Port-a-Fort. I can't remember the last game I played that had this level of polish and yet still felt like it was still growing week by week (it helps that it was all built on the pre-established Fortnite: Save the World architecture, of course).

With all that pressure, it's inevitable that a few breakdowns will occur from time to time. And people like me will complain, then the problem will be fixed, and we'll all go back to happily playing Fortnite. It's the circle of liiiiiiife...

Need some more 1v100 in the meantime? Check out our list of 10 awesome Battle Royale games (that aren't PUBG). 

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.