Fortnite hasn’t always been the IP-stuffed battle royale behemoth with millions of players that it is today. In fact, the name Fortnite used to actually make sense – back when the game started as a co-operative survival experience where players worked together to build a fort and survive the nite… er, night, against hordes of zombies.
Fortnite first released all the way back in 2017 as a paid, early access title with plans to eventually move to a free-to-play model. But the rampant success of the Fortnite Battle Royale mode that came a few months later caused Epic to change course, badging the original flavour as Fortnite: Save the World and letting it live as part of the growing Fortnite platform in pay-to-play form.
Now, it’s all coming back full circle as Save the World finally becomes a free-to-play Fortnite mode offering as of April 16, 2026. The mode will be available exclusively to players on PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch 2 (sorry original Switch owners and mobile players).
Guess those V-Bucks price increases have to go towards something, right?
Epic is running a pre-registration promo for Save the World, offering a number of bonus cosmetic items once the community reaches certain thresholds of player pre-registration numbers, including the Snowstrike Hero with unique in-game perks once the count hits 1 million players:
If you’d like to be a part of that effort, you can pre-register right here.
As for current owners and players of Save the World, they’ll receive bonus Superchargers, Vouchers, and Gold on April 16. And Founders will continue earning V-Bucks through Daily Quests, Mission Alerts, Storm Shield Defense Missions, and existing Challenges. You can find out specifics on those right here.
Born into the world of video games through SEGA, and in particular Sonic the Hedgehog, Kieron’s gaming tastes now consist of the latest, shiny AAA thing, an indie darling or two, and an embarrassing number of hours of Balatro.