Fortnite was down for people everywhere. It’s back up and running now

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UPDATE 12/29/2021 6:59 PM ET: Fortnite’s servers are back online again. Affected users could see one unopened present in their inventory. We presume that’s a “sorry-we-messed-up” gift from Epic Games for the extended server outage. More details below.

If you were trying to log into Fortnite but weren’t having any luck, you were not alone. And no, it wasn’t your internet. People everywhere were noting that Fortnite was having issues.

Downdetector showed a spike in complaints starting approximately 3:10 PM ET. At that time, players trying to log in were greeted with an error screen saying, “You do not have permission to play Fortnite.“

The Epic Games Store was also having some issues, but it’s not AWS taking out half of the internet this time. Fortnite knows that the game servers were having problems, but they figured out a solution that got services back online.

At approximately 6:10 PM ET, Fortnite restored its services. The Fortnite Status account posted a message to Twitter and announced the game was back up and running.

Fortnite’s team also promised an update: “We appreciate everyone’s understanding as we worked to resolve these issues and we’ll have more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time.”

Fortnite game servers are back online and the Winterfest continues! ❄️

We appreciate everyone’s understanding as we worked to resolve these issues and we’ll have more details next week on what we’re doing to help you make up for lost time. pic.twitter.com/ruLmG4xHgk

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 29, 2021

To make up for lost time, a follow-up tweet mentions something about a free in-game present that can’t be open yet, but the team says they’re working on something. So affected users could get something out of all this.

Already opened all your presents but still see one extra present left to open? Sit tight, we’re working on that. 🎁

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) December 29, 2021

UPDATE 12/29/2021 6:59 PM ET: Fortnite’s servers are back online again. Affected users could see one unopened present in their inventory. We presume that’s a “sorry-we-messed-up” gift from Epic Games for the extended server outage.

We’ll continue to update this post when more information is available.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.