Fortnite Winterfest 2025: Release date, start time and Harry Potter rumours explained

It's the most wonderful time of the year – Fortnite Winterfest 2025 is about to start!

Giving the map a snowy, festive makeover, Fortnite Winterfest 2025 will deliver some gifts to the people of Battle Royale Island, including some rumoured Harry Potter and Hatsune Miku collabs.

It's the latest update in what has already been a bumper Chapter 7 Season 1, which has even seen a brand-new lost Kill Bill chapter premiere.

But if you want to know what time Fortnite Winterfest 2025 starts in your time zone, here's what you need to know.

When is Fortnite Winterfest 2025? Release date and UK start time

Fortnite Winter Fest 2025 is scheduled to start on Thursday, 18th December 2025 at roughly 1-2pm GMT.

We don't know the exact time that the event will start, as this depends on how long Fortnite's downtime lasts, but based on previous events, we think that 1-2pm GMT is a good estimate.

If you're in a different time zone, here's what time we think Fortnite Winterfest 2025 will begin for you:

• US West Coast (PST) – 5-6am
• US Mountain (MST) – 6-7am
• US Central (CST) – 7-8am
• US East Coast (EST) – 8-9am
• Central Europe (CET) – 2-3pm
• Japan (JST) – 10-11pm
• Australia East Coast (AEDT) – 12-1am, 19th December
• New Zealand (NZDT) – 2-3am, 19th December

What to expect from Fortnite Winterfest 2025

According to Fortnite leaker HYPEX (who is rarely wrong), there will be a Harry Potter collaboration in Fortnite, which will include skins and a Broom Mythic at least.

The skin has already leaked, which you can see below:

A broom would let players fly around the map, and we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Golden Snitch to catch during rounds, either.

We already had the Witch’s Broom way back in Chapter 2, so we’ve already got an idea of how a Nimbus 2000 might function in Fortnite.

The aforementioned Blortzen also points to a Winterfest Hatsune Miku, based on Snow Miku, going by a leaked Fortnite LEGO hairpiece model that closely resembles Snow Miku’s hair.

And HYPEX also shared news that, judging from footage from the Naruto collaboration trailer, more of the map will be covered in snow, based on analysis from SpushFNBR, who spotted the change in the video, and KPMisParrot, who geolocated where in the map it was.

So all in all, we’ve got Harry Potter, Snow Miku and snow. What a time to be alive.

Discover more with Fortnite creative map codes: Fortnite horror maps | Fortnite action-adventure maps | Fortnite hide and seek maps | Fortnite Zone Wars maps | Fortnite fighting maps | Fortnite parkour maps | best Fortnite creative maps | Fortnite Squid Game map codes | Fortnite Monopoly code | Fortnite I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here code | Fortnite Doctor Who map code

Check out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.