Epic has spent the past few years trying as hard as it can to will the Fortnite metaverse into being–and now, at the end of 2025, it’s actually starting to look like it’s getting there. Things are still very messy, but Epic’s moves in that direction–which frequently seem to involve trying random things just to see what happens–may have finally borne fruit.
Back at the end of 2023, Fortnite attempted to usher in its metaverse in earnest by launching Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing, and Lego Fortnite all at once. It didn’t quite work, because all three were half-baked and missing key features. The only way to play Racing was in Ranked, Festival lacked instrument support and still doesn’t have a practice mode, and Lego Fortnite had the feel of a generic early-access survival game wearing Lego clothing.
Two years later, we’ve got a much prettier picture, but not because Epic went all in on those modes. Instead, Epic has simply kept churning out new modes, some of which have done consistently. Likewise, Fortnite Creative has produced its first blockbuster map with any staying power. Thanks to some key legal victories, Fortnite is once again available on mobile devices in most places, which has dramatically increased the game’s potential footprint. And the new cosmetic types added in the past year have proven a lot more popular than the cars and musical instruments that were introduced in Chapter 5.
A lot happened in Fortnite during the past year. To make it all a little easier to digest, let’s go through the biggest developments one by one.
Rise of the Brainrots
The Creative part of Fortnite got its first genuine blockbuster in 2025 with Steal the Brainrot, a licensed clone of one of Roblox’s most popular modes. Steal the Brainrot was an instant success in Fortnite, and it consistently averages enough concurrent players that it can compete with Epic’s battle royale modes. Now, Epic is planning to capitalize on Brainrot’s success by allowing creators using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite to add V-Bucks transactions to their islands, something the Roblox version of the Brainrot game has that Fortnite’s currently does not.
Unfortunately, the success of this mode means Epic has decided to use it as a focus in its marketing for Fortnite as a whole, as well as promoting it generally by placing it in the in-game news feed. That’s proven to be incredibly off-putting for folks who aren’t interested in that mode–which is pretty much everyone who doesn’t already play it.
With the Brainrots apparently here to stay, there’s reason to worry that Fortnite might soon be flooded with this sort of goofy nonsense aimed entirely at children. Epic has already made it unnecessarily difficult for folks who just want to play BR to sift through all the Creative islands and other modes they don’t care about in Fortnite’s messy Discover tab.
