Fortnite delays the start of its new season by two weeks for no apparent reason: this is the new start date

Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 1 was supposed to end in early March 2026, but Epic Games has announced an unusual extension to its duration. In an almost unprecedented move for the popular battle royale video game, its creators have announced a two-week delay in the start of the highly anticipated Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 2, which will finally arrive on March 19, creating a new divide in the community.

Fortnite delays the start of Chapter 7 Season 2: March 19 is the new date

In a tweet on the @FortniteStatus X account, dedicated to monitoring the status of the video game in real time, Epic Games has revealed that the start date of Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 2 has been delayed until Thursday, March 19, 2026. The company has not given any specific reason and has attempted to soften the news with a meme accompanied by an image from the game: “let him build.”

Epic’s original intention for the current season of the game was for it to end on March 4, 2026. In fact, at the time of publishing this news, that date still appears in-game, although we understand that it will be updated shortly. Although there is no official confirmation, one possible reason for the delay is that Epic Games has encountered numerous technical problems with a new version of the game, or with its own engine, Unreal Engine 5.

For many players, it is very significant that this announcement comes just 24 hours after the arrival of patch 39.40 for the game, which included content for the 2026 Valentine’s Day event. This recent content update has not been without its problems: users have been unable to use unlocked content in their locker—being limited to the reviled default outfits—there have been numerous lag issues even in the menus, and to top it all off, the bot lobby option, which was ideal for those who wanted to level up without the pressure of facing human players, has been quietly disabled.

In short, although the patch has also corrected a number of bugs present in the previous version of the game, the numerous setbacks introduced have confused much of the community, to the extent that they have overshadowed new features such as the event’s free items and level-ups.

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Meanwhile, Epic Games remains silent and has not clarified whether there will be compensation or any kind of special event during these two additional weeks. For their part, some players are already celebrating the delay as extra time to complete the Battle Pass, while more pessimistic fans interpret it as a sign that something has gone seriously wrong behind the scenes. In any case, a very uncomfortable question continues to hang in the air: is this a deliberate schedule adjustment, or is something not working as it should within Fortnite?

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