'Fortnite' Season 6 Start Time: When Exactly Is the Update Released?

Epic Games already confirmed that Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 6 starts on Thursday, September 27, but what time will the update hit? And, more importantly, when can you actually jump in and start playing? Here’s everything you need to know about the Fortnite Season 6 start time.

Update: Epic announced on Wednesday that its Season 6 update (patch v6.00) drops on Thursday, September 27 at 4 a.m. Eastern. That means it should be installed and ready by 6 a.m. Eastern at the latest, we hope. The original article continues below.

Traditionally, Fortnite developer Epic Games rolls out updates at 4 a.m. Eastern. With a bigger update like the one bringing Season 6, it might take a while for the files to download and install. So it could be 5:30 Eastern or even as late as 6:30 Eastern before you’re actually playing. Either way, die-hard fans may want to get up at 4 just to make sure their games are updating.

Then again, over the past few weeks, we’ve seen Fortnite move away from that 4 a.m. update time, at least somewhat. Weekly updates still seem to come in at 4 a.m. early each week, causing an hour or two of downtime as they install. However, the weekly challenges that typically go live on Thursdays have been rolling out a bit later at around 8 or even 9 a.m. Eastern. So it’s possible we could see Epic aim for something close to that time with its incoming update.

Epic still hasn’t released any sort of update to prepare for Season 6, likely because it’s worried data miners will figure out a way to leak key information ahead of time. So that means when the new season begins on Thursday it’s going to take a while to install.

Even if the update does hit at 4 a.m. Eastern, you probably won’t be playing for at least a couple of hours after that. And if the company holds off until 8 a.m. then Season 6 might not be ready until after 10. No matter what happens, be prepared for some significant downtime on Thursday morning.

Fortnite Season 6 is expected to introduce a handful of new features, including cosmetic “pets” you can carry around on your back, and new skins for various weapons and vehicles in the game. Beyond that, you can probably also expect some significant changes to the map, similar to the way Season 5 added a new desert region and placed rifts all over the island.

Whatever happens once Fortnite Season 6 hits, we’ll be here to cover the news and livestream our first moments with the new update. Follow Inverse on Twitch to watch us live tomorrow morning, and check the site for all the latest news as it comes in.