Earlier this week, Fortnite revealed V-Bucks are getting more expensive. That’s right, they’re doing shrinkflation on virtual currency; the nine dollars that used to get you a clean 1,000 V-Bucks, for instance, will soon only be worth 800. Subscribers to Fortnite Crew are also getting hammered. The price hikes come as everything else about gaming gets more expensive too, and some players are calling for a boycott to push back against Epic’s latest move.
“The cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot, and we’re raising prices to help pay the bills,” wrote the multibillion-dollar studio Epic in a blog post announcing the change. Won’t anyone think of the little guy? The cost of Battle Passes is going down to reflect the price change, at least, so the Fortnite OG Battle Pass will now cost 800 V-Bucks instead of 1,000.
But Epic doesn’t mention any price adjustments for item shop cosmetics. One Redditor made a graph illustrating how the price change could end up costing players hundreds of extra dollars in the long term.
— 𝓀𝒶𝓎! (@littlemankay) March 10, 2026
Understandably, the Fortnite community is in uproar over the news. Some players are even organizing a boycott. “You cut our V-Bucks. We cut your funding,” writes one Redditor, who created a petition calling for a price reversal that currently has over 1,000 signatures.
Epic is taking a “we feel your pain” approach to try to mollify angry fans. “There’s been a lot of feedback here not just about the V-Bucks changes, but sharing your feelings about Fortnite as a whole–especially on this current season,” read a follow-up post from the company on Reddit. “Can’t wait to show you next week’s update.”
So far it’s not working. The most popular graphic circulating on Reddit and X calls for a Fortnite boycott on March 19, when the price hike is set to take effect: “Our goal: lower the player count on the first day of the new season.”
Hey @LEGOMoonNite – Seeing comments like “the Item Shop is the main focus instead of the game” hits me really hard. It’s not the impression we want to give nor how we focus our efforts. We put a ton of work and care into Fortnite’s gameplay and this focus is only growing. Paying… https://t.co/1ibGyvFBag
— Andre Balta (@AndreBaltaEpic) March 10, 2026
Epic was asked about the backlash in a recent interview by The Verge at GDC 2026. “I think what we put out publicly is pretty accurate,” Epic senior director of ecosystem growth Andre Balta said. “It’s pure operating costs of running a business, and that was the main push. We’re going to continue to, as a business, focus on creating amazing games and gameplay, but the price hike is a direct correlation to the operating costs.”
Only time will tell how many players participate in the boycott and whether the loosely organized effort makes a dent in one of the most popular video games of all time. The frustration is clearly being heard, though.
“Seeing comments like ‘the Item Shop is the main focus instead of the game’ hits me really hard. It’s not the impression we want to give nor how we focus our efforts,” Balta wrote on X in response to criticism from one Fortnite content creator. “We put a ton of work and care into Fortnite’s gameplay and this focus is only growing. Paying the bills frees up our teams to continue driving stories and building stuff you love.”
