It seems likely that Fortnite season 11 will bring sweeping changes for the game. Most importantly, a new map may be waiting in the wings. This theory is based on leaks from the Italian Apple store.
This leak comes only days after Epic announced "The End," the final Fortnite season 10 event. This in-game event is taking place on Sunday, October 13 at 2pm EST and is speculated to bring about a world altering event that may lead to a new map. Today, an image leaked that supports this rumor.
The Italian Apple store has leaked an image of what is being called Fortnite: Chapter 2, with an image that appears to be a new landmass, implying a brand new map for the battle royale. The image was live briefly and was quickly down, but not before some screenshots were taken and shared by the Fortnite: Battle Royale Leaks Twitter account.
It seems likely, now more than ever, that a new map is on the way for Fortnite and that will be a sign of many changes to come. In an increasingly competitive landscape of battle royale shooters and top games on Twitch, Fortnite viewership is at a low for 2019. The game is in need of a boost like this if Epic wants Fortnite to stay the phenomenon it has been for the past two years.
The biggest competitors in the battle royale genre have made sizable changes to their games since launch. Apex Legends just added a new map and is updating every season with multiple new characters for players to learn. On the other hand, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been adding new maps for years, just recently releasing a graphics update to its first map to put it on par visually with the other three.
Neither of those games touch Fortnite in terms of player count or pop culturally influence, so Fortnite never needed a new map. But as genre trends and standards become more prevalent, it is easy to see new maps as something fans come to expect from a battle royale.
It will be interesting to see how the game implements the new map. Will it replace the current Fortnite map or will they co-exist? Apex and PUBG handle this issue in different ways so it will be interesting to see how Fortnite tackles it in a way that won't lead to fan backlash.
Fortnite is free-to-play on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.