Fortnite Ranked Play is Coming to Battle Royale and Zero Build in v24.40!

5.13.2023

By The Fortnite Team

Hey everyone!

You’ve long been leveling up in Fortnite Battle Royale — now it’s almost time to rank up. Starting in Fortnite v24.40, Battle Royale and Zero Build will each have a Ranked option! Enable Ranked and begin your journey of reaching “Silver,” “Gold,” “Platinum,” or beyond.

Fortnite Ranked

Before beginning your journey through the ranks, learn more about Ranked play:

Ranked Fortnite Battle Royale FAQ

What will the Ranks be?

The Ranks will span across Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal. Bronze through Diamond will have three ranks, while Elite, Champion, and Unreal will have one. Climb the ranks of Bronze to reach Silver, then climb the ranks of Silver to reach Gold. Do the same in Gold, Platinum, and Diamond to reach Elite!

Once you reach Elite, prove yourself against other highly-skilled players to advance to Champion, and then finally to Unreal.

English

Will there be any sort of Season system?

The debut of Ranked in v24.40 will be the start of Ranked Season Zero. Season Zero lasts until the end of Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 3. We’ll be using this time to make any adjustments to issues and concerns that arise, while also working on additional features and overall improvements for when Ranked starts following the normal Battle Royale Season schedule.

To track the status of bugs that come to our attention, you can keep tabs on our Fortnite | Community Issues Trello Board (English language only).

What will my starting ranks be in Season Zero?

Your starting Battle Royale rank and Zero Build rank in Season Zero will be based on your past match performance, as well as your performance in your first Ranked Battle Royale and Ranked Zero Build match. For Battle Royale and Zero Build, you’ll only need to play one Ranked match to have your rank revealed.

Is there anything special about reaching Unreal?

Once you reach Unreal, you’ll stay in Unreal for that Ranked Season. This means you won’t return to previous ranks for the rest of the Season no matter your future performance. So does that mean you’re done when you reach Unreal? Nope! Upon reaching Unreal, you’ll be given a number signifying your standing among Unreal players globally. Keep performing well in Ranked matches to raise your number and be among the best players in the world!

You’ll see your Unreal position in Battle Royale and/or Zero Build on the Unreal leaderboard, which will be live on fortnite.com/ranked/leaderboard. This leaderboard will update regularly and display participants’ Epic display name and Unreal position, so you can flex on the competition.

Players can opt out of being displayed on the leaderboard by turning “Public Game Stats” off in the “Gameplay Privacy” section of Fortnite’s in-game Account and Privacy settings.

How will ranking up work?

In the Lobby, if you have “Ranked” set to “On,” you’ll see your current rank on the left of the screen. You’ll also see a progress bar indicating how far you are from advancing to the next rank or returning to the previous one.

How much the progress bar increases or recedes after a match will depend on the following factors:

Your match placement
How many eliminations you or your team got in the match
- Eliminations later in the match will count more than eliminations earlier in the match.
- The ranks of the players you or your team eliminated will be taken into account.

Teams will be treated as a single unit — all team members will gain and lose progress equally based on team eliminations and team placement calculated at the end of a match.

Your team’s rank will be determined by the highest-ranked player on the team. For example, if a team is made up of Gold I and Silver I players, they’ll matchmake as a Gold I team and play against similarly-ranked teams.

Which modes will support Ranked?

In v24.40, Ranked will start off with the following Battle Royale and Zero Build mode(s) supported:

Battle Royale

Solo
Duos
Squads

Zero Build

Duos

You’ll have separate ranks for both Battle Royale and Zero Build.

How will Ranked matchmaking work?

If you’re playing in Solo, you’ll be matched against opponents of the same or similar rank as you.

If you’re playing in Duos or Squads, your team will have a “party rank.” Your party rank will be equivalent to the rank of the highest-ranked teammate. Your team will be matched against teams with the same or similar party rank.

Even though you’ll have a party rank, you’ll also maintain your individual rank. The progress bar movement for your individual rank will be based on your and your team’s performance in the Duos/Squads match.

Players can jump into Ranked matches no matter which matchmaking region they’re using.

Will there be any gameplay differences between Ranked matches and non-Ranked matches?

Turning on Ranked will put you against other players who have Ranked enabled. You can expect all the loot and other gameplay features that are enabled in traditional Battle Royale and Zero Build to be enabled in Ranked Season Zero as we continue to monitor and evaluate the Ranked player experience. With this in mind, we’ll be making the following balance changes in v24.40:

Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.

Can new Fortnite players play in Ranked matches?

Ranked play is meant for both new and veteran Fortnite players. To make sure new players are warmed up, players with Epic accounts that have never been used to log into Fortnite will have to complete a specific Quest (Outlast 500 opponents) before they can enable the Ranked option.

Will there be in-game rewards for playing in Ranked matches?

When you jump off the Battle Bus in a Ranked match, you’ll be given a Ranked Urgent Quest. By completing Ranked Urgent Quests, you’ll unlock Seasonal cosmetic rewards. A new Ranked Urgent Quest is given every match, and Ranked Urgent Quest progress does not carry over between matches.

Burn Bright Emote
Celebrate your success! The final cosmetic reward of Season Zero is the Burn Bright Emote. Activate this Emote to show off your current rank color (Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc.).

How will Ranked affect Competitive?

With the addition of Ranked, Arena will be discontinued in v24.40. The remaining tournaments for Battle Royale Chapter 4 Season 2 will not have a rank requirement for eligibility, except for the Console Champions Cup. Players will need to reach Platinum I rank or higher in Ranked Battle Royale to be eligible to compete in the Console Champions Cup on May 23.

Next Battle Royale Season, your rank will, among other factors, be an eligibility requirement for Epic-hosted tournaments. This includes tournaments for cosmetic prizes like Icon Series Cups, as well as tournaments for cash prizes such as FNCS competitions. As with all other eligibility requirements, the specific rank requirements for a given tournament will be listed in the official rules for that tournament.

Please note: Epic-hosted tournaments may have different loot and other gameplay features than other matches. Performance will always be the top priority for tournaments.

More Coming in v24.40: Balance Changes

As mentioned above, we’ll be making the following balance changes in v24.40:

Material caps will be decreased from 999 to 500.
Harvesting rates will be slightly increased.
Players will drop 50 of each material when they are eliminated.

Also, in case you missed it, we made the following balance changes in a hotfix on May 3 ET:

Increased the damage of the Lock-On Pistol and Thunder Spears.
Increased the Locked-On Pistol’s lock-on speed and fire rate between bursts.
Thunder Spears now explode faster after pulling the fuse.
The Forecast Reality Augment has been vaulted in tournaments.

Major Bug Fixes Coming in v24.40

Continuing to make improvements regarding some large rocks on the Battle Royale Island not providing as many materials as intended.
Fixing an issue preventing players from being healed with Slurp Juice after being DBNO.
Back Blings equipped with the Clone Trooper Outfit will no longer appear detached.
The Clone Trooper Outfit’s head movement will no longer be static.
Fixing an issue causing some Outfits to appear glossy.

May 16 Update: Trios Vault

Please note that the Trios mode will be vaulted in Battle Royale and Zero Build in v24.40.

May 17 Update: Cosmetic Streaming for Mobile and PC

On mobile and PC, we’ve extended the High Resolution Textures setting to give players more control over which content they download and when.

By default, players will stream most cosmetic items as they are encountered rather than install or patch them upfront. This will get players into Fortnite faster and reduce Fortnite’s install size.

Please note we’re still making improvements to this feature. In v24.40, players on PC will be able to download all high resolution textures at once if they wish. PC players can opt out of streaming by selecting “Disable Cosmetic Streaming” through the Options menu on the Fortnite tile in the Epic Games Launcher.

Some things to keep in mind with High Resolution Textures:

Players may notice a network bandwidth increase when streaming in high resolution textures.
With the setting “Off,” some cosmetics' visuals may appear lower-quality by comparison and future patches may be larger.