When playing online Fortnite are on December 29th the servers down. There have been a lot of error messages since around 5:00 p.m. German time, people are hanging in queues and are annoyed. Fortnite’s servers have been offline since 7:00 p.m. At MeinMMO, we look at what Epic is saying and what the timing of the disruption at Fortnite looks like. What could be the reason that the servers are now offline?
This is the chronological sequence of the server down at Fortnite on December 29th:
- At 5:13 p.m. German time, Epic-Games reported via Fortnite that there were problems with login, matchmaking and other difficulties. Epic take a closer look at this.
- At 7:13 p.m. German time, the message came: “Fortnite cannot be reached at the moment”, the players are no longer able to log in. Investigate the problem and report it as soon as the servers are back online.
If you can’t play Fortnite at the moment, let me tell you: It’s not up to you, your internet provider or the new traffic light coalition in Berlin – these are global problems right now.
The news from Epic Games coincides with the timing of the difficulties that can be observed via Google Trends: The search queries for Fortnite rose sharply from 4:50 p.m. German time, then peaked at 7:08 p.m. and have been up ever since consistently high level.
In Fortnite, the servers were regularly down during the high phase
What’s the reaction At Fortnite, you know server failures, at least if you’ve been around for a few years.
In Fortnite’s “growth phase” around 2018, there was the server downs regularly. Fortnite was overrun at the time, so popular was “Fortnite: Battle Royale”, a hastily built emergency game back then.
In recent years, however, such problems have become less common.
Back then there was a lot of frustration among the players when they had to wait days for the game to drop againf. Back then there was actually compensation for a long outage:
Fortnite: Battle Royale was developed in 2 months – by another team
On December 29th users on Twitter comment on the server down at Fortnite rather amused and ironic:
- A user demands 100,000 V-Bucks and the “Renegade Raider” skin as compensation
- A second user writes: “The game is dead (literally)”
What could be the reason for the server down? If the problems started at 5:00 p.m. German time, then escalated at 7:00 p.m., this indicates some kind of overload or too “heavy rush”, because around 7:00 p.m. European prime time should be reached, too At that time, most users worldwide should be online in Fortnite at the same time.
Actually, there is no evidence that Fortnite should have an extreme player peak by the end of 2021. The last big change in interest took place on December 5th, the third chapter of Fortnite began with a major event.
Epic will reply with a new message at 9:10 pm
Update 9:13 p.m .: At 9:10 p.m. the latest news came from Fortnite. They say they are “working on a fix” to bring Fortnite back and thanks everyone for their patience.
At the moment Fortnite’s game servers are offline while they are looking for solutions to the stability problems. You get in touch when you have more information.
Update 10:00 p.m .: Nothing new came in the last 50 minutes.
In the comments on Twitter, people say:
- “That’s completely crazy. Your servers are now down for 4 hours while children are on Christmas vacation ”.
- A user sympathizes with Epic and says: “Stupid, for you that you now have a break and then you have to work there too.”
At the moment Epic Games seems to be working on the problems with the server Down in Fortnite. In the United States, in North Carolina, where Epic Games is based, it’s 4 p.m. For them it will be a hot afternoon in the emergency position, during the Christmas period there will also be a lack of responsible technicians.
Update 11:00 p.m .: There’s nothing new from Epic Games yet. The servers are still down. Global interest in Fortnite even peaked at 10:56 p.m. In other words, the situation is likely to get worse.
Update December 30th, 12:00 am: Even at midnight there is still no news. Looks like the problem is dragging on for a lot longer.
Fortnite server online again at 12:20 a.m., first users report
Update 0:30 a.m .: There are now increasing reports that the servers in Fortnite are coming back. The first users report on Twitter that they are coming back. The search interest in Fortnite has also decreased significantly since 12:22 a.m. The situation seems to be easing.
An official statement from Epic Games is pending.
The article is created using the breaking process and is continuously updated.