Fortnite update today (19 March): What changes in the new season?

Today's the day! In today's Fortnite update, we've got the start of a brand-new season to look forward to.

And as with any new season, the start of Chapter 7 Season 2 means a huge amount of new content to look forward to.

So, what's new in today's Fortnite update? Here's an overview of what to expect in the new patch.

Fortnite update today (19 March): What changes in the new season?

Today's update marks the start of Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 2, dubbed Fortnite Showdown.

Showdown will have players join one of two teams – Team Foundation or Team Ice King – in the hopes of leading their team to victory across the season.

Whichever team wins at the end of Season 2 will earn the Frost-Ready Foundation or Exalted Frost Ice King, assuming they've bought the Battle Pass.

Speaking of which…

New Battle Pass

The new Battle Pass is here, and after recent changes will only cost 800 V-Bucks, and includes one Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as his returning character The Foundation.

Players who pick it up before 26 March will earn the exclusive Stealth Tech Foundation bonus Style and accessories.

As well as that, progressing through the Battle Pass will net you all sorts of other rewards like the Ice Prince Sidekick, Ice King's Frostwalker Kicks and skins for The Order (Reforged), Elite Jules and Bugs Bunny.

New map and items

New locations have been added to the map, including New Sanctuary, Frigid Fortress and Dark Dominion.

Along with those, we've got new movement items such as the Overdrive Grenade and Skyline Deployer.

There's plenty of new loot too, with the Vector 7 DMR, Ice King's Gauntlets and Chaos Reloader Shotgun all hitting the loot pool.

Fortnite downtime: When are the Fortnite servers back up?

Today's Fortnite downtime began at 7am GMT and is expected to last several hours.

We have no way of knowing for sure what time the downtime will end, but we expect that it will be around 10am-12pm GMT, give or take.

Usually, with an update as big as a new season, downtime can take longer, so it's worth assuming that we're looking at the longer end of that estimate.

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