Are Fortnite servers down?

FORTNITE servers have gone quiet as part of a scheduled 'downtime' to install its next big update: Chapter 5, Season 2.

While game servers occasionally crash unexpectedly, the Fortnite server outage of 8 March has been in the works for weeks.

2

2

• Follow The Sun's Live Blog for the latest Fortnite Chapter 5, Season 2 updates

At around 8:00am GMT (3:00am ET), thousands of users worldwide began reporting problems connecting to servers to play the game, according to Downdetector.

The downtime has been scheduled to begin at exactly 8:00am GMT (3:00am ET) so game developers can bring the latest Season to life.

Fortnite is expected to be out of action until 1:00pm GMT (8:00am ET).

While fans of the game should have been prepared for Chapter 5, Season 2's scheduled maintenance, it has taken some players by surprise.

"Squad desperately trying to ready up for another match of Fortnite as servers go down," one user shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Another wrote: "Omg Fortnite is down [right now] what am I gonna do with myself."

Why is Fortnite down?

Fortnite often stops operating when creators are introducing new features.

And this latest outage is no different.

The game undergoes this process with every big Season update, which occurs roughly every 10 weeks.

So gamers are well rehearsed in downing the controllers for four to six hours at a time - with the promise of rewards after.

Each Seasons introduces new themes, weapons, map locations and more lore into the game's storyline.