What date did Fortnite first enter early access?

Fortnite first entered paid early access on July 25, 2017. The release was for the original cooperative survival experience, later identified as Fortnite: Save the World, rather than the free-to-play Battle Royale mode that made the brand famous.

Epic had planned Fortnite as a cooperative game in which teams gathered resources, built defenses, and fought monster-like Husks. The paid early-access launch let Epic gather player feedback while continuing to develop the larger game and its systems-as-a-service model.

A frequent date mix-up comes from Founder’s Pack buyers receiving a four-day head start on July 21, 2017. July 25 remains the standard release date cited for Fortnite’s paid early-access launch. Battle Royale arrived later, entering public release on September 26, 2017, after roughly two months of rapid development.

The early-access period eventually lasted nearly three years. Epic removed Fortnite’s early-access label in June 2020, although Save the World and Battle Royale followed different development paths.