When does Fortnite Season 8 end? Season 9 start date, teasers, downtime and battle pass details

Season 8 of Fortnite Battle Royale has given fans twists, turns, pirates and superheroes, but the next major event on the horizon for the game is Season 9 and they’ll be expecting even more when it comes around. 

Fortnite Season 8 kicked off on February 28 and introduced a brand new pirate theme to the game, which sparked a whole restructuring of the northeast corner of the map. A brand new volcano, along with the arrival of Sunny Steps and Lazy Lagoon, gave fans a lot more than they bargained for with a new thematic setting. 

However, on May 4, players witnessed the volcano finally erupt during the Unvaulting event, with projectiles completely destroying both the Tilted Towers and Retail Row locations. 

Now, with so much free space on the map to take up, let’s take a look at when Season 9 is set to start and what to expect.

The volcano in Fortnite Battle Royale erupted on May 4, but how much of an impact will it have on Fortnite Season 9?

When is Fortnite Season 8 ending? 

The typical season of Fortnite Battle Royale usually lasts around 10 weeks and Epic Games have now confirmed that, as expected, Fortnite Battle Royale’s Season 8 will come to an end on May 8.

There has been an exception to the 10 week ‘rule’ since the game first launched its Battle Passes, though, and that was Season 7, which was extended for a further two weeks because it landed near the holiday season. Now, we now that there won’t be any extension this time around. 

Fortnite Season 9 start date 

Not only have Epic Games made the Season 8 end date official, following a number of teasers which feature later, but it’s now set in stone that Season 9 will commence on May 9.

As is the case for many Fortnite Battle Royale patches, this means that there will be some downtime as the new season content is added to the game. Downtime will commence, as the tweet above states, at 4am (EST) – or 9am (BST) and 1am (PT)

Three Fortnite Season 9 teasers revealed

While Fortnite Season 9 hasn’t yet been released, we already have three teasers to work with. However, what they signify is actually quite unclear at this stage. 

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The first image, as seen below, which was tweeted out by the official Fortnite Twitter account on May 6, showing what looks to be a futuristic character next to the new Fortnite Season 9 logo. 

The next teaser, which was revealed by Epic Games on May 7, doesn’t seem to give too much away. You may notice that the first image included the letter ‘N’ and this one features the latter “E’, though. 

After Epic’s Donald Mustard leaned towards the possibility of the teasers eventually spelling out a word, hinting that something will soon rise “from the ashes,” the third teaser from May 8 seemed to include the letter ‘O’. 

The word seems to spell out ‘NEO’, which isn’t what hopeful fans were hoping for, as many suggested the next letter may be a ‘W’, to hint towards a new map. However, that wasn’t to be the case. 

What to expect from Fortnite Season 9

It remains unclear as to what the next season could hold, but a number of rumors and leaks have surfaced which suggest some of the changes that could come in the next in-game reboot. 

One of those is a gifting feature, which many fans will have used for a limited time in the past. Leaked information, which surfaced on April 22, claimed players will soon have access to Battle Pass gifting in Fortnite. This would mean that friends could exchange Battle Pass content with others, but it is still yet to be confirmed. 

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Another change, which would be hugely more significant in the grand scheme of things, is a rumored map change for Fortnite. Since the game was released in September 2017, the map has been extended, tweaked, and the locations have changed a lot – but the map itself has more or less stayed the same.

One of the theories that just doesn’t seem to go away puts forward the idea of Fortnite’s map being completely submerged underwater, as an underwater vehicle was leaked on March 1, but that is somewhat an ageing idea now. Others have angled for a future season possibly taking the game to space, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet. 

Could Fortnite Season 9 be going underwater?

Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass cost

There hasn’t been much variation in terms of the cost of Fortnite Battle Passes, therefore there’s a good chance that Fortnite’s Season 9 will set players back a total of 950 V-Bucks. In real money, that’s $10 or £8. 

As well as the Battle Pass, expect to see another Battle Bundle in the Fortnite Item Shop for the new season, which may be a little more expensive to purchase, but will give players a head start on the first 25 tiers of the Battle Pass and will allow them to unlock a whole host of new skins along the way. 

Article last updated on May 8, 2019 at 10:38 AM (EST).