Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

You can sign up for the ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ mobile beta right now

By
Teams of 20 Announce Trailer (Battle Royale)

You already spend every waking second of your time playing Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale on your consoles and PC, but when you leave the house, you’re forced to leave the multiplayer shooter behind. That will no longer be the case, however, as Fortnite: Battle Royale is coming to mobile devices with cross-platform play.

Recommended Videos

Epic Games announced the port of Fortnite — which we shall call “Portnite” — on its website late Thursday, March 8. Initially available on iOS, the game will eventually come to Android platforms as well. A special “invite event” for iOS users will begin shortly, and you can sign up right now for the chance to play.

Invitations will begin rolling out for iOS “as the servers can handle more players,” according to Epic Games, with Android expected to follow in a few months.

To play Fortnite: Battle Royale on iOS, you’ll need an iPhone 6S/SE or newer, or a newer iPad, such as the Mini 4, Pro, or Air 2. You’ll also need iOS 11 installed, which might be an issue if you’re using a slightly older model due to the effect it can have on your battery life.

Mobile players won’t just be playing with each other, either. The game will support cross-play and cross-save with PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, and Android. Xbox One also supports cross-play with PC, Mac, and mobile players, but not with PlayStation 4.

This isn’t due to a technical restriction. Back in September, Epic Games accidentally enabled cross-play between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. Currently, the two platforms cannot play with each other, and Epic turned the “feature” off a short time later, calling it a “configuration issue.”

Microsoft is open to having cross-play between the two platforms, and has even enabled Xbox users and Switch users to play together in Minecraft, but thus far Sony has not budged.

Fortnite: Battle Royale has exploded in popularity recently, becoming the most-watched game on streaming service Twitch and putting its inspiration, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, to shame. In February, the game even managed to have 3.4 million simultaneous players. Battlegrounds recently launched its own mobile adaptations as well, though these are currently not available in North America and are not direct ports of the PC and Xbox One games.

Fortnite: Battle Royale is now available for free on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. A 100-player, five-team mode is available now as well.

The “standard” version of Fortnite, which focuses on player-versus-environment content, can be purchased in several different editions which range in price from $40 to $150.

Updated on March 12: Added information on Xbox cross-play with other platforms, as well as the beginning of the invite event.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Fortnite’s new modes are fun, but don’t sleep on Battle Royale’s great update
Solid Snake aiming a pistol out of a box in Fortnite.

Fortnite is literally the gift that keeps on giving. With so many updates bringing big changes to the game, I don't blame anyone that can no longer keep up with the live-service juggernaut. How could you after Epic recently added a full Rocket League spinoff, a recreation of Rock Band, and a Minecraft-like Lego adventure to the mix? For me, though, those can't completely overshadow the classic Battle Royale playlist that made Fortnite such a hit in the first place -- especially since that mode got some great updates of its own in its latest chapter.

Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 5 Launch Trailer

Read more
Fortnite Festival will leave you wishing for a real Rock Band revival
A character plays guitar in Fortnite Festival.

It’s been a wild three days for Fortnite. First, the battle royale game expanded with Lego Fortnite, a full survival crafting game with extensive brick-building. Just one day later, Psyonix dropped its latest game, the excellent Rocket Racing, in the app. Epic Games is completing its hat trick today with Fortnite Festival, a music experience crafted by Guitar Hero-maker Harmonix. It’s a fitting way to cap off a festive few days for the most popular game around -- or, at least, it sounds like one on paper.

In reality, Fortnite Festival is the oddest addition to the live service game's new offerings. It essentially adds both Rock Band and Fuser into Fortnite, though each is implemented in a way that doesn’t quite live up to their full counterparts. Whereas Rocket Racing feels like a fully original game that could have stood on its own, Fortnite Festival plays more like the bonus mode you’d probably expect from this endeavor.

Read more
Lego Fortnite is way more expansive than you’re probably expecting
Fortnite characters run together in Lego Fortnite.

At this point, it’s hard to be too surprised by Fortnite’s radical changes. The mega-popular battle royale game has become a shape-shifter since its launch, dropping frequent seasonal updates that fundamentally alter the core experience. But all of those previous changes are about to seem basic as the shooter is ushering in an entirely new era today. Fortnite is getting a major update that fully transforms it into a platform housing multiple games. Don’t call it Fortnite 2; it’s Fortnite, the free-to-play storefront.

Over the next three days, Epic Games will drop three original, free games inside of Fortnite. That includes titles from the makers behind Rock Band and Rocket League, but the headliner drops today: Lego Fortnite. It isn’t just a new battle royale mode or an excuse to fill the shop with a ton of skins. It’s a full-on survival crafting game that essentially crams Minecraft inside of Fortnite.

Read more