These live events are highly attended, and the developers use them as a way of drawing in new players and giving experienced players some narrative mystery to chew on.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 2, Season 1
Date: December 14, 2019
A tie-in to the release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, this live event was a glorified press conference, featuring some remarks by director J.J. Abrams and an exclusive clip of the upcoming movie.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 8
Date: May 4, 2019
The vault in Loot Lake opened. And Epic Games, in a unique instance of democratic rule, allowed players to vote on which banned weapon they wanted unvaulted and placed back into play.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 5
Date: August 24, 2018
The cube eventually arrived at Loot Lake, where it rolled itself in, and sank to the bottom. It transformed the lake into a solid, bouncy surface, which players could treat like a massive trampoline.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 3
Date: May 1, 2018
The first live event was one of the most understated ones; a meteor fell from the sky (it had started as a dot that got progressively bigger over time). When it finally touched down, it took out the factory at Dusty Depot; afterward, the resulting crater became known as Dusty Divot.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 4
Date: June 13, 2018
This set off a series of dimensional rifts; the rocket spent a minute warping in and out of these rifts, sort of like the Scooby-Doo chase scenes where the gang entered one door and exited another on the opposite side.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 6
Date: November 4, 2018
The cube began spinning, transporting players to the In-Between light universe. There, players could see an ethereal butterfly flying around; it landed on the player's finger, which then transported players back to the island which was now rid of the monsters that had plagued it throughout the Halloween season.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 1, Season 7
Date: January 19, 2019
The Ice Storm Event was foreshadowed by the in-game televisions, which featured a countdown clock and a storm warning. The Ice King used his magic to crack the ice sphere above Polar Peak, and conjured a massive likeness of himself.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 2, Season 2
Date: June 15, 2020
The Agency exploded. The Doomsday Device rose. And after a great deal of sparks, electricity and pulsing energy waves, it changed the Storm--the massive barrier that defines the outer rim of match play--into a massive, swimmable wall of water.
Image via Epic Games
season: Chapter 2, Season 2
Date: April 23-25, 2020
A concert featuring a massive Travis Scott via hologram, Astronomical doubled as a tribute to all of Fortnite's past events; it alluded to everything from the initial meteor strike to the black hole event that concluded Chapter 1.
Image via Epic Games / @laoluoflagos
season: Season 10
Date: October 13, 2019
The final Season 1 live event brought things full circle, back to the time rifts from Season 4. But this time, everything converged: the missiles, the meteor, and the glowing orb the prior season's Mecha had left behind.
Image via Getty/Christian Petersen
season: Season 8
Date: February 2, 2019
The in-game concert by EDM DJ Marshmello functioned as a celebration of the Fortnite community; 10.7 million players, not including the casual observers on Twitch and YouTube, attended the concert live.
Image via Epic Games
season: Season 9
Date: July 20, 2019
A massive Mecha versus Monster main event closed out Season 9—a callback to the classic King Kong vs. Godzilla, kaiju movies from the '60s. They moved all over the map in a slow, plodding manner, like they had real weight and power to them.
Image via Epic Games