Epic Games Shuts Down Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage in Fortnite

Epic Games has announced that three Fortnite game modes will be going offline, with two set to shut down as early as April 2026.

The news follows a major shake-up at the company, which just laid off 1,000 employees, sparking speculation among players about the future of the game. Now, it’s clear that part of that future involves saying goodbye to some of its long-standing modes.

In their official statement, Epic cited the following reason: "We've built a lot of Fortnite modes, and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base."

Here is a breakdown of what is happening to each mode:

Rocket Racing

Rocket Racing will stay live until October 2026. However, some changes are already happening soon. Starting next week, Rocket Racing Quests will no longer be available, and the current track creation template is being pulled from UEFN. There are also no further Ranked rewards planned for the current season.

The good news for players is that their Vehicle Locker stays intact. Customized cars can still be used elsewhere in Fortnite. For developers, Epic is adding car physics, hazards, and track-building tools to the base UEFN toolset in April, including the Track Spline tool and Speed Boost devices.

Before the October shutdown, developers will also have the option to move "compatible" Rocket Racing content over to standalone UEFN islands.

Ballistic

Ballistic, Fortnite's tactical first-person shooter mode, is being removed on April 16, 2026 as part of the 40.20 update. Players can still queue up and rank in Ballistic during its final weeks.

According to Epic, first-person shooter tools in UEFN will remain available even after Ballistic is gone, and FPS creator islands will continue to be supported.

The studio acknowledged that building a fully featured mode like Ballistic would require more UEFN capabilities, including custom weapon support, ranked support, and additional matchmaking features, things that are still in development.

Festival Battle Stage

Festival Battle Stage is also being shut down on April 16, alongside Ballistic, in the same 40.20 release.

For those unfamiliar, Fortnite Festival actually consists of three separate music modes: Festival Main Stage, Festival Jam Stage, and Festival Battle Stage. The last one is the competitive PVP variant where four teams of four players go head-to-head in a rhythm game format.

Quests for Festival Battle Stage will remain available right up until it goes offline.

Epic has confirmed that music is still a "major priority" for Fortnite going forward. Both Festival Main Stage and Jam Stage will continue to receive updates and improvements, so the music side of Fortnite is not going anywhere entirely.