Fortnite Confirms Downtime for First Big Update of Chapter 7 Season 2

Fortnite has revealed when downtime will begin for this season’s first major update, patch v40.10. On March 19, Fortnite players said goodbye to Chapter 7 Season 1 and welcomed Chapter 7 Season 2. This season is titled Fortnite Showdown, as it is focused on the fight between The Foundation and Ice King. Each player had to pick which side they would be on for the rest of the season when they first logged into Fortnite in Chapter 7 Season 2. During Battle Royale matches, players are assigned rivals from the opposite team and are tasked with eliminating them in order to earn points for their team.

The start of a season is always exciting, as players get to explore new mechanics and weapons, meet all the non-playable characters scattered around the map, and uncover a brand-new storyline. However, players aren’t immediately introduced to all the seasonal content at the start, to keep them interested throughout the three months that it is live. Chapter 7 Season 2 has been live for nearly two weeks, and players are ready for more content. Players have completed many in-game rivalries and are nearly done with all Act 1 milestones and have become acquainted with the new Chapter 7 Season 2 mechanics. Therefore, it’s time for Epic Games to drop the next content patch.

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Fortnite Reveals When Downtime for v40.10 Begins

Downtime start time for v40.10: April 1 at 4 AM ET

In January, Fortnite‘s 2026 update schedule was shared on its Trello page, so players knew that an update was coming this Wednesday. However, they didn’t know when downtime would begin, as Epic Games only tends to share that information a few hours beforehand. The official Fortnite Status account has shared on social media that downtime for patch v40.10 will begin at 4 AM ET on April 1. This means that players have until about 3:30 AM ET to play Fortnite tonight, as matchmaking is usually disabled 30 minutes prior to servers shutting down to prevent players from being kicked out of a game.

What’s Coming to Fortnite This Update?

Chapter 1 Season 8 OG Pass
Endgame LTM
Brainrot skins (rumored)

Even though this is only the first update since Chapter 7 Season 2 began, players already have a lot to look forward to. Plenty of leaks and official news have come out regarding what’s coming in this update, which has made fans quite eager. The biggest part of the update is the release of Chapter 1 Season 8 of Fortnite OG. Fortnite Crew members and players who enjoy this game mode will have a brand-new Pass to unlock, map changes to explore, and weapons and mechanics that they haven’t played with since the season’s original launch in 2019. This season also introduced players to the Endgame LTM, and it will once again be made available to players on April 3. Players have a couple of days to get acquainted with the map and weapon changes, unlock a few OG Pass rewards, and then focus on the returning game mode.

In addition, the long-awaited brainrot skins are expected to drop with the launch of this Fortnite update. Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Ballerina Cappucina were seen in the Chapter 7 Season 2 trailer, and rumors point towards their release date being April 1. This coincides with April Fool’s Day, so the launch of silly, viral meme skins would make sense. However, the exact release date of the brainrot skins coming to Fortnite is not confirmed yet, but players who are curious to know more should keep an eye on the leaks. As soon as servers go down, dataminers will be hard at work examining the game files so they can provide fans with information on what’s coming this update, and this will likely include the Item Shop date for the brainrot skins.