•Hamza Rashid• 7 min read
Fortnite
When Did Fortnite Come Out? Full Timeline From 2017 to Now
Ask when Fortnite came out, and you'll hear two different dates. Epic Games shipped the game in two stages, and most players only remember the second: the Fortnite release date for Battle Royale, the mode that made it a worldwide habit.
Nine years of Fortnite seasons have built an OG history. Rare cosmetics push up prices on Fortnite accounts, and players stock up on V-Bucks when old skins return.
Fortnite came out on July 25, 2017, as the paid Save the World mode, and the free Battle Royale mode followed on September 26, 2017. Below, you'll find who made the game, how old Fortnite is, and the release date for every platform and chapter.
Fortnite Release Summary
Fortnite came out on July 25, 2017, as Save the World, a paid early-access co-op mode on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Battle Royale launched free on September 26, 2017, the date most players mean.
How old is Fortnite? Counting from the 2017 launch, it turned nine in 2026.
Epic Games made Fortnite and first revealed it at the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2011.
Mobile arrived in 2018, Switch on June 12, 2018, and PS5 and Xbox Series X|S at their November 2020 console launches.
When Was Fortnite Made?
Epic Games made Fortnite over roughly six years, from a public reveal in December 2011 to an early-access launch in July 2017. The first showing, at the Spike Video Game Awards, pitched a co-op game about building forts by day and fighting monsters at night.
Development took far longer than planned. Epic moved the project from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 4, and its Polish studio, then called Epic Games Poland and now People Can Fly, worked on the game alongside the main team.
That build became Save the World, a paid early-access release for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on July 25, 2017, and it left early access on June 30, 2020.
So who made Fortnite, and who owns it today? Epic Games, which Tim Sweeney founded in Maryland in 1991 and still runs as CEO from its base in Cary, North Carolina. Tencent bought a 40% stake in 2012, but Sweeney remains the controlling shareholder.
How Fortnite Battle Royale Took Over
Battle Royale started as a side mode. In September 2017, Epic announced a free 100-player mode for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and it went live on September 26, 2017, only two months after Save the World.
The timing was perfect. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds had made the genre huge earlier that year. Fortnite answered with a free, cartoonish version where you could build your way out of a bad fight.
Season 1 was tiny by today's standards. The first Battle Pass arrived with Season 2 in December 2017. Within a year, seasons and live events had turned Fortnite into one of the biggest games on the planet.
That's why the question has two answers. Save the World is technically the original Fortnite, yet for most players the game began on the day Battle Royale went free.
Fortnite Release Date on Every Platform
Fortnite reached almost every device within about a year of its debut, and the mobile and Switch versions all landed in 2018.
Platform | Fortnite release date |
|---|---|
PC, PS4, Xbox One (Save the World) | July 25, 2017 |
PC, PS4, Xbox One (Battle Royale) | September 26, 2017 |
iOS | March 2018, invite-only at first |
Nintendo Switch | June 12, 2018 |
Android | August 2018, Samsung devices first |
PS5 and Xbox Series X|S | November 2020, at console launch |
Mobile had a rocky few years. Apple and Google pulled Fortnite from their stores in August 2020 after Epic added its own payment option. The game returned to the US App Store on May 20, 2025.
Every Fortnite Chapter Release Date
Each new chapter swaps the island for a brand-new map. Chapter 1 ended with The End event on October 13, 2019, when a black hole swallowed the map for two days.
Chapter | Start date |
|---|---|
Chapter 1 | September 26, 2017 |
Chapter 2 | October 15, 2019 |
Chapter 3 | December 5, 2021 |
Chapter 4 | December 4, 2022 |
Chapter 5 | December 3, 2023 |
Chapter 6 | December 1, 2024 |
Chapter 7 | November 29, 2025 |
Since Chapter 3, new chapters have landed in late November or early December. Epic hasn't announced Chapter 8 yet, and the Treasure Hunters mini-season starting on November 1, 2026, keeps Chapter 7 running a little longer.
Epic's rules since late 2024 let newer Battle Pass items return to the shop 18 months after a pass expires. Older passes were sold as exclusive, so OG Fortnite accounts with Chapter 1 Battle Pass skins are worth more.
FAQs About Fortnite
Final Words
September 26, 2017, is the date that matters for most players, and Epic seems to agree. Every OG season and returning skin plays on nostalgia for that first Battle Royale island.
For a nine-year-old game, Fortnite still moves faster than most new releases, with a collab or map change every few weeks.
If Epic sticks to its recent pattern, Chapter 8 and its new map should follow a Chapter 7 finale in late November or early December.
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