Fortnite is shutting down Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage, and Ballistic due to poor player base retention.
Four Fortnite game modes are going offline soon, according to an official post by the Fortnite Status account. The game modes Epic Games will sunset include Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage, and Ballistic. All three experienced a significant drop in numbers following their respective launch. They will go offline in less than a month.
Fortnite Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage, and Ballistic will cease on April 16
A statement by the Fortnite Status account reads, “We’ve built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base.”
It’s no secret that Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage, and Ballistic struggled to maintain a consistent playerbase following their respective launches. Rocket Racing stuck around the longest, arriving alongside LEGO Fortnite and Fortnite Festival back in 2023. However, players quickly dropped off and returned to other game modes.
Over the last month, Rocket Racing barely cracked 1,000 players on average, and thus Epic Games has decided it’s time for this game mode to go away. Festival Battle Stage launched with Metallica-headlined Fortnite Festival Season 4. This game mode suffered a similar fate, averaging less than 1,000 players in recent weeks.
The most recent game mode to launch was Fortnite Ballistic. This was Epic’s spin on a round-based 5v5 first-person shooter like Counter-Strike. It had a reasonable player base at first and is currently the most popular of the three. It averaged between 2,000 and 4,000 players, but that wasn’t enough to save it.
Epic Games further outlined that first-person shooter tools will be available to UEFN creators. There are also plans to introduce more car physics and assets in April.
Is Fortnite Festival going away entirely?
No, as Epic Games states, Fortnite Festival consists of three game modes: Main Stage, Jam Stage, and Battle Stage. The only game mode ceasing operations is Battle Stage. That means the other modes and Jam Tracks will remain unaffected.
What does this mean for the future of Fortnite?
Fortnite is clearly in decline, especially with the recent increase in V-Bucks prices. This latest announcement followed the revelation that Epic Games has laid off 1,000 employees amid a downturn in Fortnite engagement. It’s safe to assume these three decisions coincide.
The company is looking to cut costs where it can, and keeping additional game modes operational with little to no return on that investment is illogical. Unfortunately, for the few remaining fans of Rocket Racing, Festival Battle Stage, and Ballistic, only a few weeks remain before they go offline forever.
The question on many minds is whether other game modes could follow suit. Only time will tell as Epic Games reassesses what it needs to do moving forward. While Build and Zero Build are safe, all other declining game modes could see a similar fate.