Halloween is almost here, and that means Fortnite is getting spooky again. The Fortnitemares 2025 event is about to bring some serious scares to Battle Royale, and you won’t have to wait much longer to jump in. You might have noticed some Halloween vibes already on the island. The K-Pop Demon Hunters showed up recently as part of the early Fortnitemares content. But the real party starts when the second update drops. Here is the complete guide for Fortnitemares 2025 release date and countdown timer.
Fortnitemares 2025 Release Countdown
The Fortnitemares 2025 Battle Royale event kicks off on Thursday, October 9th, 2025. Epic Games will take the servers down for maintenance to roll out update 37.50, which brings all the Halloween content. Matchmaking stops at 1:00 AM PDT / 4:00 AM EDT / 9:00 AM BST. If you’re already in a match when this happens, don’t worry. You can finish your game before the servers go down.
The actual update starts rolling out at those times, and downtime usually lasts between one to two hours. However, since this is a big update, it might take longer. Not sure when the update drops where you live? Check out this simple table to find your time zone:
| Time Zone | Time |
|---|---|
| US (PDT) | October 9, 5:00 AM |
| US (EDT) | October 9, 8:00 AM |
| Central Europe (CET) | October 9, 2:00 PM |
| India (IST) | October 9, 5:30 PM |
| Japan (JST) | October 9, 9:00 PM |
| Australia (AEST) | October 9, 10:00 PM |
Here’s the countdown to when the event goes live in the game. Keep in mind, it may start an hour or two later than expected:
Remember that you need to download the update first before you can play. The download becomes available at these times, but the servers might take a bit longer to come back online.
What Makes This Fortnitemares Different?
This year’s event feels bigger than usual. Epic Games started dropping Halloween content early with the K-Pop Demon Hunters, and now they’re following it up with this massive second update.
The mix of content is interesting too. You’ve got cartoon characters like Scooby-Doo alongside genuinely terrifying villains like Art the Clown, Ghostface, The Grabber, and Jason Voorhees. Fortnite has always walked a fine line between being kid-friendly and appealing to older players, and this event really shows that balance.
The event should run until the end of Chapter 6 Season 4, which will be on November 1st, 2025. That gives you several weeks to experience everything and unlock any cosmetics you want. Epic Games hasn’t announced the exact end date yet, but Fortnitemares typically lasts for most of October and sometimes into early November. See you on the island, and try not to let Art the Clown catch you off guard!
