Fortnite cross platform guide: Play with (almost) everyone

With over 350 million players worldwide, Epic Games’ free-to-play battle royale game Fortnite has morphed into a mainstream phenomenon. You can now find it on nearly every platform, including PC, Mac, consoles, and even mobile devices. But is Fortnite cross-platform compatible?

The answer is that yes it is (for the most part). In fact, part of the game’s success is due to Epic allowing players to compete with their friends across most platforms that support Fortnite.

Read also: Here’s how to install Fortnite for Android and iOS

In this guide, we will tell you how to enable Fortnite cross-platform play so you can battle, or just hang out with friends — whether they are on a PC, console, or mobile device.

Sign up for an Epic Games account

The one thing Fortnite cross-platform players need to get started is a free Epic Games account. You can do that inside the game itself, or via Epic’s website. You can create a new account with just a simple email address or you can use your signup information from your Facebook, Google, Steam, or Apple accounts. You can also create an Epic account with your Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, or Nintendo account info.

Your new Epic account will keep track of your account progression, along with any in-game purchases you’ve made, so that if you switch from, say, your Android phone to an Xbox One, your progress and items will still be available.

If you want to play online with others across different Fortnite platforms, you will need to link your platform to your Epic Games account. Players on Android and Windows have to make that link to play anyway. PlayStation and Xbox console players can link to their Epic account on the game’s official website. Nintendo Switch players are asked to link to their Epic account when they start their game.

Android Fortnite gamers can also sign up for an Epic Games account inside the game itself. You can create a standard email account, or use your Facebook, Google, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, or Nintendo Network account to sign in.

Adding your Fortnite online friends across platforms

Getting together with your friends online in Fortnite is actually pretty easy. On console and Android, you can add friends with an Epic Games account directly through the game via the main menu. PC gamers can do the same via the Epic Games Launcher. There’s also the option of using the game’s Party Finder feature to search for any of your Epic Games account friends across platforms if they happen to be online.

The game also has a Squad Fill feature that lets you auto-fill a party with random users not on your friends list. However, you have to be in a cross-platform party to play against players on other platforms.

Fortnite cross-platform compatibility

Here’s the most important part of the Fortnite cross-platform feature. If you want to play Fortnite with the most online friends across most platforms, your best bet is to play on Windows, Android, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 and 5 versions of the game. Those players can battle with any other player on those platforms.

Also, Android players can only play against PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox One players if those players join a crossplay party. If that’s the case, then they will be placed in crossplay matchmaking queues.

iOS and Mac Fortnite cross-platform issues: Apple versus Epic

In August 2020, Epic Games launched its own in-app store payment system in Fortnite. This went against the app store policies of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS systems. Both companies removed the game from the Google Play Store and iOS App Store, respectively. While Android device owners can still install and update Fortnite without Google Play, that’s impossible for iOS game fans. As a result, Fortnite cross-platform play for both iOS and Mac versions has been disabled from all other platforms. iOS and Mac players (the ones with the game still installed) can still go online and play the game, but just with each other. Also, Apple gamers cannot update their Fortnite apps to the current version that’s available for other platforms.

In a trial between Apple and Epic over this dispute, a judge ruled for Apple in September 2021 for nine of 10 counts. Epic is appealing the ruling.

As you can see, Epic Games has developed Fortnite with crossplay and cross-platform gamers in mind. It’s a shame that Epic’s legal issues with Apple have eliminated iOS and Mac cross-play for now, along with preventing new installs of the game on Apple’s devices.