10 best Fortnite seasons ever, ranked

A big part of Fortnite’s success since 2017 has been its ever-changing themes, weapons, map, and more. Called Chapters, followed by Seasons, these usually offer brand new collabs that come with new gameplay mechanics that attract new players and keep existing ones in the battle-royale game.

This method has been financially rewarding for Epic Games. Due to the amount of content released, players have been using the game’s currency, V-Bucks, to take advantage of the current season’s offering by buying the new content. From Marvel to Power Rangers, the majority of seasons have been a big hit with players. With this in mind, we’re ranking the 10 best Fortnite seasons so far.

There have been well over 20 major seasons released since Fortnite’s 2017 debut, as well as mid-season updates that add new mechanics and weapons. However, we’re focusing on the seasons that first came out and what they offered. For our ranking, we’ve considered how memorable the season was and its overall impact, as well as how fun they were to play and how the gameplay and theme combined to create a unique experience.

Appearing between February and May 2025, the Lawless season had players visit multiple locations to open vaults, all while dodging or facing a bunch of security guards. If successful, these vaults would offer many rare weapons and items that could help tilt the battle in your favour. New locations like Outlaw Oasis and Shiny Shafts could be visited on the updated map, and the appearance of characters from the Mortal Kombat series, like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, made this a season to remember that never felt tiring.

Arriving in March 2022 and wrapping up in June, Resistance introduced several new movesets like mantling and tactical spriting that made traversing around the map and landmarks far quicker than before. Introducing Marvel’s The Prowler as part of the battle pass, the addition of tanks, a torch that could repair vehicles, new weapons like the Combat SMG and Drum Shotgun, as well as mixing up Spider-Man and Star Wars items, made this season a very fun one to play. 

Known as the very first season to offer a battle pass, the Medieval theme also introduced some items and mechanics that have become integral parts of Fortnite. From pistols to Small Shield Potions and Chug Jugs, Chapter 1, Season 2 also added several landmarks that have reappeared several times since this update, such as Tilted Towers and Shifty Shafts. Gameplay-wise, everything felt ramped up, with shields and new weapons adding to the tension when it came down to single digits against players in the map. It’s an update that’s one to remember, and it helped to separate Fortnite from PUBG Battlegrounds even more.

Released in July 2018 and ending in September, Worlds Collide introduced vehicles in the form of Golf Karts, finally letting players travel across the map more quickly compared to sprinting. New weapons like the Submachine Gun, Double Barrel Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, and others also gave players ways to defeat opponents with more satisfaction. Additionally, the Rift-To-Go item, which lets players teleport high in the sky in order to glide over the map, finally solved the issue of having too many players in the same place. Overall, a fun update that provided new ways to travel across the map quickly.

Between August and November 2024, Absolute Doom heralded Marvel’s latest return to Fortnite, but did it in a new way. Not only did much of the map change to reflect landmarks by Dr. Doom, but weapons and items were given a Marvel makeover, making players feel more engrossed in the brand, as well as having them wonder what was coming until the Season’s end. It also had a coincidental effect of Marvel announcing that the fifth Avengers film would be retitled to Avengers: Doomsday, ramping up the attention to what this season offered.

Arriving in March 2023 and lasting until June, this particular season was unofficially known to players as MEGA City and much of the map drew from Japanese influences, such as Cyberpunk and cherry blossoms, giving Fortnite a breath of fresh air in several ways. Rail grinding was a new mechanic in this season, letting players climb onto rails and traverse landmarks like MEGA City. In addition, new weapons like the Combat Shotgun, Overclocked Pulse Rifle, Kinetic Blade, and more, only added to the cyberpunk theme, which was well-received by players thanks to the new mechanics, as well as the skins that the battle pass offered.

The final season of Chapter 3, which lasted from September to December 2022, had a ‘Chrome’ theme that almost gave the whole map a creepy vibe, with many landmarks covered in the material. There were also new weapon additions, such as the Suppressed Machine Gun and Rapid Fire SMG, and items like the Port-A-Bunker and Launch Pad that let players go high into the air, depending on the pad being thrown onto a flat surface. This Season had every chance to fail at first glance due to the appearance of Chrome, but it ended up being a more refined update that doubled down on what makes Fortnite work.

At the time of writing, Shock N’ Awesome is the current season that’s running until November, and it’s a prime example of when a collab defines a Season in every positive way. First debuting with a trailer that perfectly mimicked an episode of the Power Rangers, the collab with the Japanese Super Sentai import led players to form groups wearing every Power Rangers costume, with many videos of this going viral. Although the appearance of the bugs and the cards that granted longer sprinting have not been received well with some players, the season’s battle pass has been one of the best in a long time, with signs that more skins and rewards will be coming on September 16.

Despite previous seasons showcasing Marvel’s Spider-Man, this season brought the web-slinger to the forefront, as well as a brand new map. Between December 2021 and March 2022, there were some milestones here, too, such as the sliding mechanic, making it very fun to climb to the top of a mountain and slide all the way down, while shooting at opponents. The entire game also saw a graphical upgrade, thanks to Unreal Engine 5, available on consoles and supported PCs that offered more detail, ray-tracing effects, and more. New weapons like the Ranger Assault Rifle, Auto Shotgun, and others appeared, as well as items like Med Mist, and the ability to take someone’s crown after they had won a match. But it was Spidey’s Web Shooters that made this season go up a notch. With 80 tries, players could swing around the map, building momentum and escaping the storms in style. It made the fresh map even more fun to explore, all while previous landmarks would return throughout the chapter, making this particular season one for the ages.

If you logged into Fortnite between August and December 2020, you would have landed on a map that looked and played like a Marvel theme park, in a good way. With a battle pass that offered characters like Wolverine, Storm, Thor, unique wraps, and more, as well as unique weapons that were faithful to even more characters, it felt like the season was its own unique mode. Everything felt refreshed here, especially after the muted season previous that revolved around water. Here, you would see Galactus, a towering God who would get closer as the season’s end approached. At the end, a fantastic showdown would begin against it, transforming Fortnite into one of the best Marvel games in recent years, if only for half an hour. It made such a huge impression that Marvel head Kevin Feige reportedly showed this fight to the crew of ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ as inspiration for Galactus. Ultimately, this season was a prime example of where everything simply worked, and every item, skin, and more had a justifiable place in the game.