Is Arena Coming Back to Fortnite?

Is arena coming back to Fortnite? One of the most persistent rumours over the last few years has been that Fortnite Arena is coming back. Or Ranked is getting changes to make it closer to the old Arena mode. But right now, there has not been any official word on the change. It does look like we’re stuck with Ranked.

If you’re wondering is Arena coming back to Fortnite, there hasn’t been an announcement. Although, with Fortnite Ranked getting worse player numbers every week, we might see a change coming. The game doesn’t have a particularly good Ranked community right now.

What’s the difference with Arena and Ranked and why do some players want it back in the game?

Is Arena Coming Back to Fortnite?

Is Arena coming back to Fortnite? It would definitely be a move that would get players excited about Ranked again. But right now, there isn’t really a reason to think Arena coming back to Fortnite is going to happen.

The game’s change over to Ranked quite a long time ago now. While players miss Arena, Epic’s been pretty firm on sticking with the current version of it. We briefly got the tournament ruleset in Ranked for Chapter 5 Season 3. But that was more of an emergency measure from a season’s unique meta having such a dramatically poor reception. Even then, the Arena branding didn’t return. It was still called Ranked. Just used the older approach to balance.

Fortnite Arena mode probably won’t be coming back as a named mode. Even Late-Game Arena isn’t really a thing anymore. It’s much more likely to stay as Ranked. But we could see the difference in rule sets return. It might help Ranked out of its current problems.

What is Fortnite Arena Mode?

Fortnite Arena mode was the game’s original version of Ranked. It used a unique name and had significantly different balance to the current Ranked.

Today’s Fortnite Ranked mode is just pubs, but with ranks. You get a change to your rank after a game. However, it can be hard to keep track of. The old Arena mode had definitive score amounts. Players got a set number of points per kill and placement. Along with paying a certain amount of points as an entry fee in higher ranks. You could always see how far you had to go to get to the next rank. Plus, the performance you’d need to get there too.

Maybe the biggest change between the Fortnite arena mode and Ranked though is the loot pool. Tournament Fortnite has a specific loot pool which rules out the over-the-top items, like the Superman transformation. But also just items that clutter up the loot pool without helping tournament play. It’s a more competitive version of the game. Fortnite Arena mode used this build of the game. Whereas Ranked just uses the Pubs build.

This means Ranked mode effectively plays like pubs. But with a random change to your rank at the end of the game. There are still bots, and matchmaking means games have a wide spread of ranks in them a lot of the time. Would Arena coming back to Fortnite fix this?

Would it Fix Ranked’s Problems?

The current Fortnite Ranked mode isn’t very popular. Its player count is now frequently below what would be healthy for matchmaking. Part of this is down to how Fortnite’s progressed in more recent seasons. We now get new modes all the time. Each gets Zero Builds and Builds. Frequently they get Ranked mode for both versions too. Meaning each new mode becomes at least four modes. We’ve even got Ranked for LTMS.

Epic has started cleaning it up a bit, removing some modes like OG Zero Build Ranked. But at this point we have so many permanent modes, the player base is going to be further fragmented. Then when we take into account that Ranked isn’t really a different experience from pubs, the incentive for players to grind is even lower.

Arena coming back in Fortnite would at least mean the loot pool for Ranked was more in line with competitive. Players would be able to play in the same style of game as Fortnite esports. And if they want to use the wackier items, they can jump into pubs.

At the moment, a full change for Arena or Ranked doesn’t look too likely. But with the player count for Ranked getting lower and lower, we might see a change eventually. Since Ranked seems to be on a permanent downward slope right now.