10 Aspects I Loved and Loathed About Fortnite in 2024

The past year has been significant for Fortnite, highlighting its most remarkable expansions with a variety of new game modes and a collaboration with Disney that remains largely under wraps. Chapter 5 commenced in December 2023 with the launch of Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Festival, and Rocket Racing, and Epic has introduced numerous new modes since then, including Reload during the summer and OG and Ballistic earlier this month. There is now more Fortnite than ever before.

Of course, it hasn’t all been perfect or all bad—there have been missteps, and there have been achievements, as well as everything imaginable in between. However, one thing is clear: Fortnite has become a truly multifaceted game by the end of 2024 compared to when it first started. Let’s reflect on the highs and lows from this past year in Fortnite.

Since the launch of Chapter 5, Fortnite has introduced Lego Fortnite Odyssey and Brick Life, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, Fortnite Reload, Fortnite OG, and Fortnite Ballistic. While not all these modes have been massive successes, their individual and collective contributions have been largely positive for Fortnite. Even Rocket Racing, despite its lack of success, is still quite fun—it simply lacks the structure that could help casual gamers navigate easily.

As someone who finds himself in the “it’s time to slow down” phase of life, I appreciate Fortnite’s diversification immensely. The more varied fun I can have with Fortnite, and the more ways Epic finds for me to utilize the cosmetics I’ve acquired over time, the less inclined I’ll be to delete my SSD space for competitive games. It’s a win for me and Epic alike.

Chapter 5 in battle royale was quite divisive, considering the introduction of overpowered boss medallions in Season 1, the laser-like Waterbending mythic in Season 2, the overwhelming emphasis on vehicle combat in Season 3, and eventually War Machine’s awful jetpack in Season 4. The innovations in Chapter 5 have been quite bold and over the top, even by Fortnite’s standards, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all—even though I completely agree with the consensus that we should never see that jetpack again.

With the addition of the permanent OG mode and various new shooter modes designed to attract players typically uninterested in such novelties, it allows Epic to continue experimenting wildly within the core battle royale mode. Detractors can simply avoid those elements by playing OG instead, while those who enjoy the gimmicks can keep their engagement high. It effectively accommodates everyone.

Inflation has greatly impacted Fortnite over the past year, largely due to Epic’s multi-faceted approach to increasing prices across the board. It began in late 2023 with a rise in the cost of V-Bucks, and continued into the new year with two major shifts in Epic’s item store strategy: Aside from a few Icon skins (skins representing real celebrities like Shaq) and highly customizable skins like the Skratch Firm station, Fortnite ceased releasing new collaboration skins that offered multiple style options.

In Chapter 5 Season 4, for example, Epic introduced 21 new non-Icon collaboration skins. Only three of them offered any style options at all, and those simply featured toggleable elements—Iron Spider’s helmet, Dark Cat’s mask, and Spider-Gwen’s webbing. Currently, Epic has opted to sell additional styles separately, as seen with the Platinum Festival skins, which are minor recolor variations being sold for 1,800 V-Bucks each. Previously, styles such as these could have been included with the new skins as a value-add to encourage new purchases, but those days are behind us.

Furthermore, Epic has developed a concerning trend of bundling collaboration skins with accessories at a higher price, while not allowing individual purchases. Once rare, this practice occurred at least 30 times in 2024, mostly for collaboration skins. In contrast, there were only five instances of this tactic employed in 2023, four of which involved the TMNT skins released at the end of that year.

Lastly, bundle prices have skyrocketed. Previously, they maxed out at 2,800 V-Bucks, likely due to the ability to purchase that specific amount. However, the major collaboration bundles in 2024 have exceeded this threshold, with bundles costing between 3,400 to 3,800 V-Bucks now becoming the new standard for larger bundles. Thankfully for everyone, Epic seems to be stepping back from this troubling trend with many new bundles launching in December.

Every season during Chapter 5 concluded with some type of community live event occurring during battle royale matches, starting with the collective effort to break the chains on Pandora’s Box at the end of Season 1. This was reminiscent of how Fortnite formerly approached these events before Epic shifted primarily to doing instance-based events like Collision in Chapter 3 and the Big Bang at the end of Chapter 4.

However, these ambient events are wonderful because they last for a significant duration—it took an entire weekend to open Pandora’s Box, allowing for widespread participation since there wasn’t a fixed start time. Additionally, it fosters the feeling that the island is evolving while we’re actively playing, which was harder to achieve with those instance events.