Fortnite’s New Years eve in-game event begins with fireworks and discoball – Video

Fortnite’s New Year’s celebration event has officially kicked off, as 2019 officially begins to roll in around the world.

Plans to celebrate the arrival of the new year were found in Fortnite’s game files on Tuesday, December 18, with fans excited to ring in 2019 in-game. 

New Year’s Eve celebrations have already begun on Christmas Island and in Kiribati, signalling the start of the event in Fortnite. Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein confirmed that the event kicked off at the same time as these countries entered 2019, and it seems likely that the in-game event will take place every hour as more nations celebrate the start of the new year. 

First spotted by FaZe Clan pro player Thiefs, the event officially kicked off on Monday, December 31 at 2:00 AM PDT (5:00AM EDT, 10:00AM GMT, 9:00PM AEDT), with fans surprised to see it begin so early in the day. 

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Thiefs was playing regular duos when he heard an explosion in the sky above him. The FaZe Clan star quickly built a ramp to see what was happening, when a massive ball, similar to the one used to ring in the new year in New York, appeared in the sky and began to descend down to the ground.

A ten second counter could be seen in the sky, while fireworks went off in the sky around the ball. Thiefs was unable to do anything during this sequence, as the ball forced his character to dance, likely to stop people killing each other while the event was taking place.

While Epic Games have included an in-game event to help celebrate the new year, they will also be hosting a special New Year’s Eve event featuring Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, which will be broadcast on Twitch live from Times Square in New York City. You can find all the information you need to make sure you don’t miss any of the stream using our handy Ninja New Year’s Eve event hub.