Did Galactic Battle tank the Fortnite player count?

Something odd is happening with Fortnite player counts, and some people are pointing fingers at Fortnite Chapter 6, and more specifically, Galactic Battle. You may not have noticed if you’ve been happily dropping off the Battle Bus and hitting up the First Order/Resistance Base, Outpost Enclave, or Samurai’s solitude, but Fortnite recently hit its lowest player count in two years. 

That feels odd because the last Fortnite update is probably a dream come true for Star Wars and sci-fi fans. Not only has the last season been steeped in Star Wars content and locations, but with the Fortnite Battle Pass renamed the Galactic Battle Pass, and offering treats like an Emperor Palpatine skin, Apprentice Evie, Twin Pairing Blades, and Twin Blaster, there’s been the usual mix of skins, items and tweaks to the BR map. So, and we’re not sure how to say this, do people just not like Star Wars? Or is there a deeper issue?

One thing’s for sure: there’s no ignoring the figures for anyone, like us, keeping track. Fortnite.gg reports that so far, June has seen the Fortnite average player count dip below the 1 million mark. It’s higher for the last 30 days, but not by much. Not only is this the lowest player count for two years, since May 2023, but the drop appears to be part of a larger downward trend that may prove worrisome for Epic Games’ Fortnite.

Despite a brief spike in mid-February this year (just before Chapter 6 Season 2), 30-day average player counts have dropped consistently since December 2, or one day after the launch of Chapter 6, and right after Fortnite Remix. It was pretty popular, of course, returning some players’ best Fortnite weapons, and saw an average player high of over 4 million. So could it be that after Remix, many players have realized the game just isn’t for them anymore, with a brief trip towards nostalgia bursting the bubble? 

That’s possible, but we need to take a longer view: The understandable (and decent) popularity of Fortnite Remix fits in with a general holiday season bump. If you go back to the Holidays in 2023, the end of November also saw a year’s high of 7.6 million average Fortnite players. Through early 2024 and toward the summer, player counts dropped, just like they have in 2025. 

One issue here is that year on year, 2025 average player counts are trailing 2024 by approximately 800,000 players each month. Notably, though, one of the worst months for Fortnite in 2024 was May (2.4m), where the 2024 Fortnite Star Wars event took place. It was only second in poor performance to June (2.1m).

Are people tired of Star Wars in Fortnite now, and somewhat listlessly waiting to wave off 2025’s Death Star Sabotage Fortnite live event? Are they hoping for a more enjoyable Fortnite Battle Royale for C6:S4 and some rejuvenation of the Fortnite map? Maybe. Perhaps returning to a theme covered in June 2023 with Find The Force and May 2024 was a mistake, and there have been some shouts of ‘money grab’ from some quarters.

The IP may not be a favourite for some Fortnite players, but Chapter 6 Season 3’s reaction at least seems mixed. For example, YouTuber More SypherPK has asked: “Was the Star Wars Fortnite Season a Mistake?”. In a thoughtful commentary, he lands on ‘no’, hoping it may prove valuable for future seasons in regards to feedback for Epic Games. That doesn’t mean it was good, though.

Degenerate Jay, in his video, “Star Wars Fortnite is Terrible”, calls the season “awful”, citing the whole thing as a “miss” when a permanent Star Wars mode may have been the better option with a redesigned map and full commitment to the theme. 

There are other considerations, though, and maybe it’s not Star Wars’ fault at all. The smaller team at Epic may not be delivering the content Fortnite players want. When news broke in September 2023 that Epic Games was laying off 870 staff, some of whom would inevitably be working on Fortnite, concerns were clear. However, Fortnite was already trending up in average player numbers for 2023, and in November of that year, Fortnite OG hit, making it easy to miss or ignore the bad news.

The fact that average players have been generally decreasing since Fortnite OG may be symptomatic of a perceived lack of creativity from Epic in Fortnite content. But Fortnite’s economic model is different from how it once was, and it’s worth remembering that in September 2023, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney released a statement about Epic’s layoffs, explaining:

“While Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite battle royale took off and began funding our expansion. Success with the creator ecosystem is a great achievement, but it means a major structural change to our economics.”

While Fortnite is no longer ‘growing’ based on existing trends, if there is a tiredness with Star Wars Fortnite, or any apathy towards Fortnite gameplay and content in general, it may not be a quick and easy fix. An injection of money and creativity from Epic may not be possible, especially if it’s navigating an existing plan to maintain and grow the player base going forward.  

In Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4, you’d hope the only way is up: For content, for the gameplay, for enjoyment, and ultimately for average player numbers, if only because that means more people are enjoying the game again. Objectively, it will be interesting to see, because while the new season is expected to be ‘super’, such a theme could have a broad enough appeal to halt Fortnite’s downward player trend. 

Historically, that’s been the case for July, being Summer proper, and getting a boost because of that, saw July 2023 and 2024 both with reported increases of 100,000 average players. That would be significant if it happened again, putting the average player number back above 1 million. It wouldn’t be massive, but it would be a start. Given that some of the best Fortnite skins are hero-themed, this could be a real opportunity for Epic to deliver an awesome new season with lovable content that makes players want to forget about Star Wars Fortnite. 

Ultimately, while it has had a mixed response and is another return to the Star Wars theme, it’s tricky to say that Galactic Battle has tanked the Fortnite player count. At least lower player numbers are not purely down to it. 

There’s a longer-term downward trend in average players, which may point to a general lessening in interest or a slight dip before a return to form. We’ll keep an eye on things to see which of these bears out, and in the meantime, we’re looking forward to the next season to climb the Fortnite ranks yet again.