With little or no fanfare or promotion upfront, Fortnite simply shocked its gamers with a brand new dwell occasion that befell throughout rounds of Battle Royale at 3 PM PT on Thursday afternoon–not actually when anyone is anticipating a Fortnite occasion to go down. The occasion noticed a rocket noticed a rocket emerge from the just lately added crimson rift within the sky, earlier than flying round a bit by a number of different rifts, after which it will definitely landed at Categorised Canyon. In all, the occasion lasted about 90 seconds. Take a look at a replay of the occasion under.
THE VISITOR IS NOW ON THE CHAPTER 7 ISLAND
FULL MINI LIVE EVENT pic.twitter.com/2ntX52FSOw— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) February 19, 2026
What’s fascinating about this occasion is that it was principally the identical because the rocket launch occasion that occurred in Chapter 1 Season 4, and which was repeated final summer time in Fortnite OG, however this time it occurred in reverse. In that previous occasion, the customer took off from the island, flew by a number of rifts, after which left by a brand new rift–the rift being crimson was a brand new wrinkle within the OG re-do. However this time he arrived by the rift and landed on the island.
What does that imply? It is onerous to say simply but, however after the occasion ended, a brand new line of story quests was added to BR, and you’ll speak to The Customer himself subsequent to his rocket at Categorised Canyon to get a number of new particulars. Yet one more set of latest story quests will drop subsequent week as effectively.
This new dwell occasion was seen first by dataminers and leakers, with Fortnite’s personal socials solely teasing it five minutes in advance. It isn’t Epic’s normal promotion technique for these types of issues, however that is precisely why it was such a pleasant shock.