Fortnite: Here’s How Long the Match on Average Is

In today’s world, we’re surrounded by shorter content that gets us that dopamine high so that we can get it all over again once we change the channel, so to speak, to get another dopamine high all over again. Besides, the world is getting increasingly fast-paced, and we no longer have as much time to grind out our favorite games. With all these things considered, would you have the time to throw in a quick round of Fortnite, though? How long is a Fortnite match, exactly?

The longest Fortnite match

We must mention a few notable matches before getting into the longest Fortnite match in history. In 2020, a new record for the longest Fortnite match was set. It was made by Lazarbeam, an Australian YouTuber and professional gamer who played a match of Fortnite that lasted 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 39 seconds.

After the record was set, the X2Twins beat it quickly, but only by 2 minutes. The record was broken once more shortly after by Creamy and Lachlan, which made the X2Twins try and beat the record again. The record to beat was 10 minutes longer than their first set world record. Crazy enough, they beat the record again by over 30 minutes.

In total, the twins were in a single Fortnite match for 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 48 seconds and there is a chance that this record will never be broken again, but why is that?

Storm sickness

Storm sickness is a mechanic in Fortnite that gives players a debuff. It’s fairly simple to understand. When you enter a storm area, you will begin losing health until you enter a safe zone. The storm area grows and shrinks the playing area. Essentially, it forces the players to end the match early.

There are 12 phases to the storm, but after the ninth circle, the storm no longer has a grace period nor a shrink time. The storm eye is the safe zone you can be in during the storm. So keeping in mind that eventually, the storm will kill all players in a match, how long will it take for the storm to completely close in and kill all players and end the match prematurely?

Maximum Fortnite match duration limit

Well, every storm cycle has a grace period: the time it takes for the storm to start moving and closing in and a shrink time that decreases as you go through the storm cycles.

The storm forms 1 minute after the battle bus reaches its last stop. Let’s round it up and say that the battle bus reaches the last stop in 1 minute. In the first storm cycle, you have a 2-minute grace period and a 2-minute shrink time. The 2nd cycle has a 1-minute 30-second grace and shrink period; the third cycle has a 1-minute 45-second grace period and a 1-minute 30-second shrink period. The 5th, 6th, and 7th cycles all have a 1-minute grace and shrink period. Overall, the storm will completely close in without any storm eye to protect you in a little under 25 minutes. From then on, it’s just a matter of you surviving the storm, but that’s hardly likely.

So the duration limit depends on how fast the storm closes in. The storm duration and how fast it closes in can change as new versions are released. For example, in previous versions, the storm only had nine cycles, and the first cycle grace period was 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I won’t go into all the details, but the match duration will depend on the developers and how they think the game should be balanced regarding playtime.

The shortest Fortnite match

Funnily enough, the shortest Fortnite match lasted only 1 second. Of course, this can’t mean that the match was actually played. Instead, a player named GlitchKing, as his name would suggest, exploited an error that made him win the match after all the other players left.

Match length depends on skill level

This claim might frustrate some people, but that match length will indeed, individually, depend on skill level. Once you’re killed in Fortnite, you won’t respawn and continue playing like in Deathmatch game modes in other games. Once you’re dead, you’ll be presented with the score and your final placement. After that point, you leave the game, so for all you know, in your personal experience, a match can last 5 minutes.

The better you are at the game, the higher the chance for you to finish first, which means you’ll play the entirety of the match. If not, you’ll play for a shorter amount of time.

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