Fortnite Crossplay Explained – How to Turn on and Limits

Jordan Ashley

Share:

Crossplay is one of the most convenient features in modern gaming, and Fortnite was one of the first games to really push for it to be standard. The ability to play with any friends, from any platform in the same lobby. But not every player knows how to turn on crossplay in Fortnite. Past that, not every platform can even turn it off!

Fortnite Crossplay Explained – How to Turn on and Limits

Crossplay is now pretty much standard in games like Fortnite. Since it’s free on every platform, PC and each console can all play together. Even consoles that charge for internet access allow people to play Fortnite without the membership. So Fortnite crossplay makes the game truly open, and it has been part of the game for loads of Fortnite seasons now.

Playing with Fortnite crossplay can be a great solution to friends across platforms. It isn’t exactly perfect for playing in tournaments, but it can be a lot of fun. If you want to know how to turn on crossplay in Fortnite, the process is really simple.

How to Turn on Crossplay in Fortnite

If you want to turn on crossplay in Fortnite, all you need to do is head into your settings. The crossplay one can be easily toggled off and on. This is how to turn on crossplay in Fortnite:

  • Turn on Fortnite (Obviously)
  • Go to your menu
  • Settings
  • Then Account and Privacy
  • Then select Allow Cross Platform Play
  • Change the Setting to the one you want

This will only really effect pub matches. Fortnite ranked is crossplay without the option to turn it off. So is Creative. It’s pretty much only Fortnite Battle Royale unranked that is effected by crossplay settings. Everything else is crossplay without an option to change it.

How to Turn on Crossplay in Fortnite
Image Credit: Epic

What is Fortnite Crossplay?

Fortnite Crossplay is a feature in game which is essentially what it says on the tin It’s cross-platform play. So a player on PlayStation can lobby up with a player on PC. Although, you’ll also be in completely mixed lobbies. The game won’t let a PC player use crossplay to jump around in controller Fortnite lobbies.

Crossplay lobbies are people playing on console quality, and others with high performing PCs running the game at a much higher FPS. The whole thing is a bit of a double-edged sword. Especially with mouse and keyboard players up against controller. Fortnite is a little more unique since building is actually easier on controller. But fighting, edits, FPS, pretty much everything is else is better on PC.

However, it has always been a big help for matchmaking. Epic does try to use skills-based matchmaking in Fortnite, alongside a ton of bots. Which should pair console players with lesser-skilled PC players. But the easier aiming of mouse and keyboard will always be a factor in cross play games. While how to turn on crossplay in Fortnite is simple, it can be tricky to decide if it’s worth turning on or not. Although, frustratingly, not everyone can turn it off.

Can You Turn off Crossplay in Fortnite?

The process for turning off crossplay is as simple as how to turn on crossplay in Fortnite. Just turn it to off.

Most players probably see it when looking through the best Fortnite settings. You don’t need to keep changing it depending on your party either. Partying up with other players on another platform will automatically change you over.

But, you can’t do that on every platform. Because of matchmaking times, Epic doesn’t allow crossplay to be turned off on every platform. For some reason, this pretty much only effects the platforms that are so underpowered that Fortnite crossplay comes at a major disadvantage.

Fortnite Switch 2
Image Credit: Epic

If you’re playing on Mobile, Switch, or Switch 2, you can no longer turn off crossplay. Which means you are locked into lobbies with PC players and there’s no way to turn it off. Annoying. The reason for this is matchmaking times. But given that Fortnite pubs games are instant… it seems like most players would tolerate a bigger delay for the same of an even playing field. Fortnite can have a much bigger wait time and still beat out most games for waits. Their current queue times are non-existent.

This Fortnite crossplay issue is supposed to be balanced out by matchmaking. Since you’ll be in lobbies with similarly skilled players. But the skilled based matchmaking isn’t really good enough to justify locking 30 FPS players and mobile devicies into PC lobbies, while higher powered consoles can get rid of mouse and keyboard players if they want.

Fortnite iOS Come Back
Image Credit: Epic

Hopefully, the option to turn off crossplay could come to every Fortnite platform again in the future. It was originally possible for every platform. Right now, only some platforms can turn things off though.

Article Tags

No tags found

Tournaments

No tournaments found
Jordan Ashley

Jordan Ashley

Fortnite Content Lead
Jordan has spent the last seven years documenting the highs and lows of competitive Fortnite, while struggling to place above 42nd in a pubs bot lobby.
More from Jordan Ashley >