Hot Topics – Is Fortnite: Battle Royale free, on Steam and cross-platform?
Your latest questions answered in one place.
Is Fortnite Battle Royale free, is it on Steam and does it support cross-platform play? We answer your biggest questions.
Every now and then we notice a handful of questions crop up in our search records that we don’t necessarily have an answer for on the site. Rather than writing individual articles for what are really rather minor – albeit important – details, we occasionally compile them all into one spot and answer them in a break-out article like this.
If there are any other questions you have about Fortnite: Battle Royale, do let us know and we’ll do our best to dig out the information for you and pop it in the comments. If we get enough queries, we’ll compile them into another edition of this kind of article, so future visitors can access the information nice and quickly.
Without further ado then, here are answers to some of the biggest questions you’ve been trying to find the answers to in recent weeks:
Is Fortnite: Battle Royale free?
Yes, very much so, although there are some limitations as you can probably imagine from your experiences with other free-to-play games.
Whether you’re playing on PC, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, the basic client is free for everyone to get stuck into. Just download it and away you go (although do check our core Fortnite: Battle Royale guide if you want a chance at actually winning!)
To monetise the title, Epic has an in-game store from which you can buy cosmetic items on a one-off basis, or you can invest in something called a Battle Pass. As you play through games, you’ll earn points which upgrade your Pass into new tiers. As you rise through the tiers, you unlock new cosmetic items.
The free version of the Battle Pass has considerably fewer items than the premium version, however. The good news though is that if you decide to upgrade to the premium pass mid-season, all your progress is carried over and you’ll instantly receive all the items unlocked to that point.
Check out our Battle Pass guide for more detail on this subject, including information on how the levelling up process actually works. We’ve also got a Season 3 Battle Pass guide which focuses specifically on the rewards available in the latest round of competitive play.
Is Fortnite: Battle Royale cross-platform?
Officially, no it’s not, and you’ll have to make sure you and your friends are playing on the same platform (PC, PS4 or Xbox One) if you want to compete together as a group.
With that said, there is currently a rather fiddly method you can employ which allows PS4 and PC players to play together. Check out this Reddit thread which goes into detail about this workaround if you want to give it a go for yourself.
It’s very complicated though, and it could potentially be patched out of the game tomorrow. In other words, you commit to an account in this way at your own risk. It’s probably better to wait for official support, if that’s the direction Epic would like to go in.
- 1. Chapter 2: Season 2 guide – Fortnite Chapter 2: Season 2 guide
- 2. Best Settings – Fortnite: Best Settings (PC, PS4, Xbox)
- 3. Best Keybinds 2019 – Fortnite: Best Keybinds 2019
- 4. System Requirements – Fortnite: System Requirements (PC and Mac)
- 5. Land Faster – Fortnite: How to land faster
Is Fortnite: Battle Royale available on Steam?
It’s another “no” on this subject we’re sorry to say. If you want to play Fortnite: Battle Royale on PC, you’ll first of all need to download Epic Games’ official desktop launcher. You can grab the client over at the game’s official site.
Once you’ve installed the Epic Games launcher, you’ll then need to search for the Fortnite option in the interface and then install the game within that launcher. Once that’s installed you’ll be ready to go!
It seems unlikely that Epic will change this system and allow Steam downloads in the future, but if the publisher chooses to do so at any point then we’ll update this article.
