Unplayable Periods

Unplayable Periods (Downtime for Updates) are sporadic occurrences in Fortnite where Battle Royale, Save the World, and Creative are rendered unplayable. This is mainly downtime for a new patch, however some events allow you to log in, although it cannot be played and you cannot access the News tab, Battle Pass tab and Item Shop alongside other things. Events that caused Unplayable Periods are from Battle Royale.

Lists of Unplayable Periods
This list does not include downtimes for updates, or times when there are server issues but remained online.
 * The Nothing
 * Countdown to Zero (The Devourer of Worlds)
 * Countdown to Zero (Operation: Sky Fire)
 * Float To Artemis
 * Game Queues
 * December 29th, 2021 Unplayable Period
 * February 1st 2022 Unplayable Period

The Nothing
Just before the Nothing occurred, The End event unfolded. The Meteor collided with The Zero Point and the Zero Point began to contain itself, rendering the game unplayable for a total of 36 hours excluding the patch afterwards.

Countdown to Zero (The Devourer of Worlds)
Just before the Countdown to Zero appeared, The Devourer of Worlds event took place. Galactus went through a rift in space to send us into the Countdown for around 8 hours excluding the patch.

Rocky Ridge
Just before this version of the Countdown to Zero appeared, Operation: Sky Fire was in the making. An Abductor was about to hit us but the screen cut to black right before the impact. The countdown lasted about 13 hours.

Float To Artemis
Just before this version of The Nothing appeared, The End (Chapter 2) Live Event had been active. The Apollo island flipped and the Artemis island was revealed. The impact of the flip caused a tsunami to head towards the location of The Looper and similar to Operation: Skyfire, the screen cut to black right before impact. A screen of the ocean appeared and had the outfit you wearing at the time floating on a small log as the camera slowly zooms in. This Unplayable Period lasted for around 18 hours, although it was intended to last for around 3 days.



Game Queues
Queue Times or Game Queues are periods of time where either the main game or launcher is accessible, but the user is softblocked from any actual content. This usually happens whenever Epic Games servers are crowded, or to reduce the influx of players loading into the game at once - which may happen at a time where many players may want to play at once, such as for a Live Event, or the introduction of Chapter 3: Season 1.

December 29th, 2021 Unplayable Period
This Unplayable Period started with game queues, then Epic Games shutting the servers down at 16:00 UTC. This Unplayable Period lasted about 7 hours until servers went online again on 23:20 UTC. It is most likely caused by many players want to play at once, to open Winterfest 2021 presents. The Crescent Shroom Harvesting Tool was given to all players who played around the time of the downtime for free as a result of the Unplayable Period.

February 1st 2022 Unplayable Period
Update v19.20 was released on this day, introducing a new Named Location known as Covert Cavern and the return of the Heavy Shotgun while also introducing Gunnar's Stinger SMG. This made many players log in to the game at once to experience the new update, causing login issues before severs went offline at 21:00 UTC. The Heart's Desire Wrap was given to all players who played around the time of the downtime for free as a result of the Unplayable Period.