Spooky season has arrived.
Screenshot by Destructoid
Each year, Fortnite fully embraces the spooky season with a massive seasonal update centered around making the island a whole lot scarier. Fortnitemares is one of the most exciting annual additions for the game, and it feels like it gets bigger each year, so you’re likely eager to dive in as soon as possible.
There’s quite a lot to look forward to in this massive update, including all kinds of frightfully fun collabs and plenty of gameplay changes and additions. To ensure you’re ready to hop on the battle bus as soon as possible, here’s the exact start time and date for the 2026 installment of Fortnitemares in Fortnite.
Table of contents
When is Fortnite’s Fortnitemares 2026 event?
All Fortnite Fortnitemares 2026 features
All Fortnite Fortnitemares collaborations
The 2026 version of Fortnite’s annual Fortnitemares event is confirmed to arrive on Oct. 1. A precise launch time hasn’t been shared, and likely won’t be ahead of release, as is usually the case with all fresh Fortnite updates.
Although we probably won’t get an official timing announcement, Fortnite updates stick to a pretty predictable and reliable schedule. Because of this, there’s a very good chance the game will head into downtime around 3am CT, then be in maintenance for around three hours before the update likely goes live sometime near 6am CT.
It’s always possible the maintenance could run for shorter or longer than expected depending on how smoothly everything goes. Generally, though, most updates roll out very close to this time, so we’ve set our countdown to it.
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The 2026 Fortnitemares event will introduce new content for just about every area of the game. It’s not quite as big as a seasonal update shift, but it’s as close as we’ll get until the next season arrives.
Additions confirmed for this update include new Sprites, fresh map locations, including Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, lots of collaborations, including gameplay assets and shop items, and much more. There are also likely plenty of secrets that will slowly be revealed throughout the month of October as the Fortnitemares event progresses.
Every Fortnitemares event comes with a vast collection of spooky collaborations and crossovers. Quite a few big ones have already been revealed for the 2026 run of this event, including:
Although quite a few massive collabs have already been revealed, there are likely several others being kept secret for now, as has been the case with past Fortnitemares events, which means we’ll just have to wait and see. There’s plenty to keep you busy while you wait for this huge update to arrive, though, including key tasks like collecting Looper’s essence from eliminated players, taking down Geno, finding Audio Logs, and acquiring Power Ups.
Topics covered: Disney Dreamlight Valley, Minecraft, Phasmophobia, Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, The Sims 4, BitLife, Pokopia, Cozy Games, General Gaming, New Releases
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Source: Destructoid