Why Does Fortnite Have a Queue?
The queue may appear when you’re trying to jump into a Fortnite game, but why does the game have a queue in the first place?
Zack Palm 
Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp 
Image via Epic Games
When joining a game of Fortnite, the experience is usually smooth, and you can jump right into it with friends. I have, however, encountered a queue when I try to join the game as we come up to The Big Bang Event.
You might wonder why a queue is in the game and what’s causing this problem. Are the servers experiencing issues? Is there an ongoing problem that the Epic Games team is trying to solve? Although the issue is much more clear-cut than that, it’s more of a positive reason than an issue. Here’s what you need to know about why Fortnite has a queue.
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Why Does a Queue Appear Before Playing Fortnite?
The reason Fortnite has a queue for players is that Chapter 5 Season 1 has just been released, and everyone is trying to play all at once. Players are incredibly excited to get into Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 1 Underground now it’s begun, and this has only been exacerbated by the queues that formed during The Big Bang Event the day before.
The queue will happen after you launch the game and before you enter the main menu. Thankfully, you’ll see a countdown timer showing how long you have until you can join a game of Fortnite, hopping in with your friends, or playing it by yourself. We saw the queue on December 2, 2023, while more than 7 million players were all trying to get into the game at once. This has continued well into December 3, 2023, and the launch of the new season.
The queue timer will swap between 20 and 30 minutes based on when you do it. During The Big Bang Event, leaker iFireMonkey has said they’re even going beyond that on Twitter. When more players are expected to play in Fortnite, this timer will be much higher, and you can expect to wait a decent amount of time before hopping into a match.
The queue for Fortnite will always be there in-game. It only ever appears if the population and servers are dealing with many players. Although it’s not the best thing to wait on, it does mean the game is doing well for itself, and Epic Games has an absolute banger on its hands regarding players wanting to play Fortnite and participate in matches.
When you do get into Fortnite, waiting for matches won’t happen at all. You’ll be able to start immediately. However, to avoid the queue again, make sure not to shut down the Fortnite application, and try to avoid error codes.
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