'Fortnite' Season 8 Start Time: When Exactly Is Season 8 Coming Out?

Thanks to the usual series of visual teasers released by Epic Games on Twitter, we already know that Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 8 kicks off on Thursday, February 28. But what time exactly?

According to the active in-game countdown that appears above the Season 7 battle pass, Season 7 is scheduled to end right around 2 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, February 28, 2019. Usually, downtime for the installation of each new season begins at 4 a.m. with the next season going live around 90 minutes later.

These precise times do vary on occasion, especially when it comes to the transition between seasons. It’s possible that Season 7 will end at 2 a.m., Epic will take down the servers starting at 4 a.m., and Season 8 could go live right around 5:30 or 6 a.m.

Update: Epic Games confirmed Wednesday afternoon that server downtime would indeed begin at 4 a.m..

Fortnite Intel reports that based on a PlayStation Store event listing, the season starts at 4 a.m. on Thursday, lasting until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7.

Similar, previous images taken from the PlayStation Store by Fortnite Intel have proven correct in the past, but 68 days sounds awfully short for a Fortnite season. These seasons also never seem to end at night, as Epic Games prefers to install all updates, including seasonal ones, in the early hours of the morning.

That being said, any hardcore Fortnite players looking to jump into Season 8 as soon as humanly possible should set their alarms for 3:59 a.m. on Thursday morning just to be on the safe side — — assuming Epic Games doesn’t make any official announcement in the next 36 hours or so.

And if the FortniteSeason 8 start time is a little later than expected, you can always play Apex Legends or Anthem for a couple hours while monitoring the Fortnite Twitter account while they wait for Season 8.

Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 8 begins Thursday, February 28 at some point early in the morning.