Epic has spent the previous few years making an attempt as arduous as it will probably to will the Fortnite metaverse into being–and now, on the finish of 2025, it is truly beginning to seem like it is getting there. Issues are nonetheless very messy, however Epic’s strikes in that direction–which incessantly appear to contain making an attempt random issues simply to see what happens–may have lastly borne fruit.
Again on the finish of 2023, Fortnite tried to usher in its metaverse in earnest by launching Fortnite Competition, Rocket Racing, and Lego Fortnite suddenly. It did not fairly work, as a result of all three have been half-baked and lacking key options. The one approach to play Racing was in Ranked, Competition lacked instrument help and nonetheless would not have a observe mode, and Lego Fortnite had the texture of a generic early-access survival recreation carrying Lego clothes.
Two years later, we have got a a lot prettier image, however not as a result of Epic went all in on these modes. As an alternative, Epic has merely saved churning out new modes, a few of which have performed persistently. Likewise, Fortnite Artistic has produced its first blockbuster map with any endurance. Due to some key authorized victories, Fortnite is as soon as once more obtainable on cellular gadgets in most locations, which has dramatically elevated the sport’s potential footprint. And the brand new beauty varieties added up to now 12 months have confirmed much more widespread than the vehicles and musical devices that have been launched in Chapter 5.
Loads occurred in Fortnite throughout the previous 12 months. To make all of it somewhat simpler to digest, let’s undergo the most important developments one after the other.
Rise of the Brainrots
The Artistic a part of Fortnite acquired its first real blockbuster in 2025 with Steal the Brainrot, a licensed clone of one among Roblox’s hottest modes. Steal the Brainrot was an instantaneous success in Fortnite, and it persistently averages sufficient concurrent gamers that it will probably compete with Epic’s battle royale modes. Now, Epic is planning to capitalize on Brainrot’s success by permitting creators utilizing the Unreal Editor for Fortnite so as to add V-Bucks transactions to their islands, one thing the Roblox model of the Brainrot recreation has that Fortnite’s presently doesn’t.
Sadly, the success of this mode means Epic has determined to make use of it as a spotlight in its advertising for Fortnite as a complete, in addition to selling it usually by inserting it within the in-game information feed. That is confirmed to be extremely off-putting for people who aren’t thinking about that mode–which is just about everybody who would not already play it.
With the Brainrots apparently right here to remain, there’s motive to fret that Fortnite would possibly quickly be flooded with this form of goofy nonsense aimed completely at kids. Epic has already made it unnecessarily troublesome for people who simply wish to play BR to sift via all of the Artistic islands and different modes they do not care about in Fortnite’s messy Uncover tab.
The issue is that Fortnite doesn’t supply any approach to tailor your Uncover tab in any respect besides favoriting modes and maps that you simply like. You possibly can’t, for instance, inform it that you simply’re not thinking about Steal the Brainrot, so there isn’t any approach to escape the noise or fake it would not exist as a result of Epic is continually selling it to you. It isn’t enjoyable.
The fracturing of battle royale
Fortnite added a number of new battle royale spinoff modes up to now 12 months, beginning with the everlasting OG mode that has been revisiting Chapter 1. Along with roughly recreating the sport because it existed seven years in the past, this mode even acquired its personal new battle move, the OG move, for every of its seasons.
Then we had Blitz Royale, which arrived throughout the summer time with a deal with cellular gamers, because of its brief matches on a small island. Epic has performed tons of fine-tuning on Blitz Royale because it launched, making an attempt all kinds of novel mechanics, like granting all gamers a super-powered medallion to start out a match–though because the starting of November, Blitz is extra like a tiny model of normal Battle Royale, with out as many gimmicks. However Blitz has modified so incessantly that it is by no means had an actual standing quo–which is a good way to maintain gamers’ curiosity.
Epic adopted that up with Delulu, a weekends-only mode with proximity voice chat that permits gamers to kind impromptu teams–and then betray one another in the event that they wish to.
One way or the other, these new modes–alongside Reload, OG, and common Battle Royale–have all managed to take care of wholesome populations on the similar time. They completely do cannibalize one another a bit, however not a lot that it impacts matchmaking in any explicit mode for most folk. It is powerful to think about that Epic might get away with any extra new BR modes and not using a bump to Fortnite’s general inhabitants, however Epic clearly is aware of this too–that’s in all probability why Delulu is just obtainable on the weekends.
Going all in on celebs
Being a rhythm recreation, Fortnite Competition was by no means going to tug a whole bunch of hundreds of concurrent customers over the long run in the way in which Battle Royale does. Nowadays, the mode has a small however devoted playerbase, however the cosmetics related to the mode–skins of pop stars within the merchandise store and the seasonal music passes–have clearly been a giant success for Epic, as a result of the corporate has been doing much more of these forms of collabs generally this 12 months.
Simply up to now few months, Fortnite has launched new collaborations with 5 musical artists (Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Doja Cat, Tyler the Creator, and Playboi Carti) that weren’t Competition headliners, after which Epic punctuated its newly ramped-up celeb obsession by including Kim Kardashian in December. Contemplating how widespread these celeb and popstar skins have been lately–it looks like we have been battling Sabrina Carpenters nonstop in BR this year–you can in all probability anticipate much more crossovers of this kind in 2026.
New digital toys to spend cash on
Epic Video games has been progressively introducing new forms of cosmetics over the past couple of years. Again in Chapter 5, it added vehicles, musical devices, and varied Lego issues. Kicks popped up simply earlier than the beginning of Chapter 6 a 12 months in the past, and in 2025, we acquired sidekicks–essentially pets who observe us round and get excited after we carry out sure in-game actions. Whereas the brand new Chapter 5 cosmetics struggled a lot out of the gate that Epic needed to decrease a few of their prices–it turned out that 4,000 V-Bucks was sort of lots for a Fortnite car–kicks appear to have performed nicely, and sidekicks are a particular hit.
Sure, there’s been loads of grumbling about each of probably the most just lately added new beauty types–folks who aren’t sneakerheads are inclined to scoff at kicks, and there was loads of frustration which you could solely customise your sidekick’s look as soon as earlier than it locks completely. However people are shopping for them nonetheless. It is uncommon that I’ve a teammate who would not have a pet canine or cat (or hen) following them round.
And talking personally, as anyone who’s been taking part in for years and has tons of skins, I like with the ability to department out with new stuff. I actually do not want extra skins at this level, however having Itchy from The Simpsons observe me round and have a good time my kills is pleasant.
The AI slop is coming?
Whereas Fortnite isn’t presently any form of wasteland of AI nonsense, the primary purple flags popped up this 12 months. Epic’s most notable AI-driven creation was the Darth Vader NPC in Battle Royale throughout the Star Wars mini-season in Could, who might reply dynamically, within the voice of the late James Earl Jones, to issues gamers stated to him. It was undoubtedly bizarre, however at the least it was one thing which may have been impractical to strive with out AI.
Different obvious AI issues have begun popping up right here and there inside Fortnite since then. Epic gave out a free jam observe in October that had AI-generated cover art featuring Hatsune Miku–even although the observe had nothing to do with Miku. There are some items of artwork within the recreation in Chapter 7 which have generally been accused of being AI-generated, like a poster of a Yeti in a hammock by which one of his feet has five toes while the other has four. And an emote on Lisa’s music move makes use of a licensed 2025 track so obscure that no person even is aware of who made it–and it sounds very very like it is AI-generated. Oh, and people Brainrots? All of these are AI-generated meme designs from the Italian Brainrot trend.
To be sincere, all of that actually would not add as much as very a lot. However whenever you take these issues alongside latest feedback from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney–in which he stated it is absurd for Steam to require disclosure if AI-generated content material is utilized in a recreation’s improvement as a result of AI will quickly be concerned in all dev work–there’s actually some motive to fret that Epic is perhaps planning to unleash the slop in its endless pursuit of the kids who play Roblox.
