Guide
When Did Fortnite Come Out?
This question has two answers, which is why you'll see different dates quoted everywhere. Fortnite launched in 2017 — but the mode almost everyone means by "Fortnite" launched separately, a couple of months later, and it's the one that made the game a phenomenon.
Two launches, two dates
Fortnite originally released in 2017 as Save the World: a co-operative survival game where you build forts and fight husks. It was a paid early-access title, and it is still in the game today as a separate mode.
Battle Royale arrived shortly afterwards as a free mode, built quickly in response to the genre taking off. It was free, it was enormous, and within months it had eclipsed the game it shipped inside.
So when someone asks when Fortnite came out, the honest answer is: the game in 2017, and the mode that made it famous later the same year. Articles that give you a single date are usually quoting one and ignoring the other.
How old is Fortnite now?
Counting from the 2017 launch, Fortnite has been running for the better part of a decade — long enough that players who started at launch as children are now adults, and long enough for the map to have been destroyed and rebuilt several times.
Epic marks the anniversary in-game most years with a birthday event, usually including free cosmetics and a cake-themed set of challenges.
The chapters since
Fortnite is organised into chapters, each containing several seasons. A season is a battle pass cycle of roughly two to three months; a chapter is a longer arc that usually ends with a live event and a new island.
Chapter transitions are the big ones. They typically involve the map being destroyed on-screen in a live event, a short period where the game is genuinely offline, and then a completely new island when it returns.
You can see which chapter and season is live right now, and everything that arrived with it, on our current season page.
Common questions
Is Fortnite Battle Royale older or newer than Save the World?
Newer. Save the World launched first in 2017, and Battle Royale was added as a separate free mode later that year.
Is Save the World still playable?
Yes. It remains in the game as its own mode, though it receives far less attention than Battle Royale.
Has Fortnite ever shut down?
Only temporarily and by design. Chapter-ending live events take the game offline for a short period before the new chapter begins. Rumours of a permanent shutdown have never been accurate.