The massively popular battle royale game, Fortnite, has reached a level of cultural dominance that has made way for some truly epic crossovers. Over time, we've seen the game successfully crossover with Stranger Things and Avengers -- resulting in the ever-popular Thanos dance -- just to name a few. And it seems highly doubtful the crossovers will be coming to an end anytime soon.
Still, while the crossovers have all been notable for a plethora of reasons, some have been better than others. With that in mind, we break down the best pop culture crossovers in Fortnite.
11. Fortnite x Ralph Breaks the Internet
Ralph Breaks the Internet, Disney's follow-up to the 2012 hit Wreck-It Ralph, followed in its predecessor's footsteps by being chock full of references. Since the sequel took its main characters into the world of the internet, the references expanded from just video games to all corners of pop culture. So, naturally Fortnite was a perfect fit, given its pervasive impact on the internet through memes, streaming, and Esports. In the film, Fortnite's Battle Bus makes a brief cameo, and Ralph himself performs the "floss." A dance popularized by the game.
However, this list is covering references in the game, and while Fortnite and Ralph Breaks the Internet reference each other, the only appearance of the latter in the game is a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. At the time of the crossover, players who landed in Risky Reels, an area modeled after a drive-in movie theater, could see Ralph himself dash across the screen. It was easy to miss and wasn't guaranteed to appear in every game, so while a fun moment for players who caught it, it's too brief to rank any higher on this list.
10. Fortnite x NFL
In November of 2018, the National Football League (NFL) announced that they were partnering with Epic Games for a crossover that would allow players to unlock jerseys from all 32 NFL teams. The crossover was partially motivated by the amount of NFL players who had become fans of the Fortnite. Many of the dances used as emotes in Fortnite became popular celebrations on the field of NFL games. In addition to the jerseys, players could unlock football-themed emotes as well as tools and gliders.
Since this crossover was purely cosmetic and didn't come with a new game mode or in-game items, it remains low on this list.
9. Fortnite x Star Wars
The next crossover on this list is also the most recent. To promote the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Epic revealed a collaboration with EA that would allow players who purchased the game on the Epic Games Store to get an Imperial Stormtrooper skin in Fortnite. While the skin is purchasable to players who don't buy Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, it's a nice incentive to Star Wars fans. Additionally, the Imperial Star Destroyer appeared in the sky above the island in Fortnite. While initially, some players thought this would to something as the ship moved closer to land, it appears it is staying put.
While this is one of the more light crossovers, it gets placed a little higher than the previous two because it's still on-going. With Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker being released in theaters next month, the event may return with more content related to the sequel trilogy.
8. Fortnite x Stranger Things
To celebrate and promote the release of Stranger Things 3, Netflix collaborated with Epic on an event that allowed players to play as Chief Hopper or the creepy Demogorgon. While just another minor cosmetic crossover, Fortnite x Stranger Things gets ranked higher than the others due to the strategy of its release. Leading up to the official event, portals started appearing around the in-game Mega Mall location. These portals were designed after the portals to the Upside Down in Stranger Things and would take players to different parts of the mall. This was a nice reference to the heavy emphasis on the Starcourt Mall setting in Stranger Things 3. What made this all the more fun was that the portals started appearing before Epic announced the crossover, stirring up excitement and confusion in equal measure.
7. Fortnite x Batman
To celebrate Batman Day this past September, DC collaborated with Epic to bring Batman to Fortnite. The event included two Batman skins and one for Catwoman, as well as emotes and other cosmetics like the Batglider. However, the most exciting addition to this event was the two new in-game items, the Grapnel Gun and the Explosive Batarang. The former allowed players to pull themselves towards wherever they could shoot it and then glide across the map, much like in the Batman: Arkham series. The Batarang acted as a proximity mine, that could either be thrown directly at enemies or placed like a trap.
Additionally, the Tilted Towers location in Fortnite was re-skinned to become Gotham City. New challenges also appeared, some of which were tied directly to Gotham City. This crossover marks the first on this list to feature significant gameplay content.
6. Fortnite x Jumpman
While this may be one of the more out of place crossovers on this list, Fortnite's collaboration with the Jordan brand brought new skins, challenges, and an entirely new game mode for Fortnite's Creative Mode. The Downtown Drop limited-time mode took players to an entirely different map than the normal Fortnite island. Downtown Drop had players sliding around streets modeled after New York City to collect coins and grab and achieve the highest score
5. Fortnite x Borderlands 3
Starting off the top five is Epic and 2K Games' collaboration for the release of Borderlands 3. Included is the expected cosmetics, such as a Psycho skin and Claptrap backpack, but additionally, players could walk through a rift and visit a portion of the map that was designed after Pandora. The Pandora Rift Zone felt like a true crossover as Fortnite players could feel like they were literally walking around in Borderlands 3. The event also included content for players to use in Fortnite's Creative Mode, allowing them to build their own little section of Pandora to play. This crossover felt like a true love letter to Borderlands, which more than earned its spot this high on the list.
4. Fortnite x John Wick
In Fortnite's third season, a skin was added to the game called The Reaper, which bore a striking resemblance to the character John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves in the film series of the same name. The skin was informally dubbed "John Wick" by fans and streamers alike, which no doubt prompted this crossover in Fortnite season nine.
To promote the release of this past summer's John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, Epic added a pack of gear and a, finally official, John Wick skin that actually bore the likeness of Keanu Reeves. Along with the cosmetics, a new game mode was added called "Wick's Bounty" that allowed players to defeat opponents to earn coins, at the risk of becoming the highest value target.
This crossover adds quite a bit less content then some ranked lower on this list, but the sheer hype of having the unofficial John Wick reference come full circle is what earns it its spot.
3. Fortnite x Marshmello
In a truly unprecedented event, Fortnite hosted a concert for the massively-popular EDM artist, Marshmello, in the form of a limited-time mode called "Showtime." The ten-minute medley of some of Marshmello's biggest hits was attended by over 10 million players worldwide. It is so far a completely unique event that may very well inspire others like it. Of course, also included is the requisite cosmetics such as a skin allowing players to wear Marshmello's stage costume.
2. Fortnite x Avengers: Infinity War
The first major crossover between Fortnite and a pop culture IP was the unexpected collaboration with Marvel for the release of Avengers: Infinity War in 2018. The event included a new limited-time mode that allowed players to grab hold of the Infinity Gauntlet and become the Mad Titan, Thanos, himself. While playing as Thanos, players had access to a number of exclusive powers that made him very difficult to stop. However, while playing as Thanos you were visible to other players on the map, making you a target to every other player. Only one player could grab the Infinity Gauntlet at once, making the opening seconds of the game a mad dash to find it.
This crossover was made possible because Avengers: Infinity War directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, were big fans of Fortnite, often sneaking in games during the editing process. Joe Russo called up Epic creative director Donald Mustard and the two sparked the idea for the game mode.
1. Fortnite x Avengers: Endgame
Joe and Anthony Russo returned the favor from the previous Fortnite collaboration by including the game in a scene in Avengers: Endgame. In a hilarious scene, Thor's buddy Korg is playing the game against a player called Noobmaster69. Thor takes the headset and taunts the player on the other end. It's a great scene but it's made even better by the collaboration continuing in the form of another limited-time game mode around Avengers: Endgame's release.
The mode allowed players to play on teams of 20 on either the side of Thanos or the heroes. On the Avengers' side, players had access to Iron Man's Repulsors, Thor's Stormbreaker Axe, Captain America's Shield, or Hawkeye's Bow. On Thanos' side, players were Chitauri soldiers wielding laser rifles. All six Infinity Stones were also placed around the map, each with unique effects. The first Chitauri to grab one would power up and become Thanos himself. Of course, the event also included skins and challenges.
The Avengers: Endgame crossover is ranked at the top of this list for a number of reasons. Not only is it made all the more sweeter that Fortnite had a fairly major reference in the film, but the game mode was incredibly fun and included a bunch of very unique content that showed that the Avengers were surprisingly fit for Fortnite's gameplay.
There have been some other smaller crossovers, including references to Pennywise from It: Chapter Two and a follow-up to the NFL event for Super Bowl LIII, but these are all of the major official crossovers Epic has made possible for Fortnite. Now that the doors have been blown wide open with some major pop culture properties, anything seems possible for future crossover events.