Fortnite Servers – All 8 Locations and Why Ping is Important
| Tags: Fortnite
| Author Jordan Ashley
Where are the Fortnite Servers? These are the cities where you'll find the Fortnite zero ping locations and why your distance from a server matters.
If you’re playing competitively in Fortnite, it absolutely pays to know about the Fortnite servers. This isn’t just the spot you’re connecting to. It decides your ping, which can decide who wins a 50/50 attempt to take a wall, which has decided who wins multi-million-dollar tournaments.
These little data servers hold the fate of a lot of Fortnite players in the palm of their hands. So where are they, which Fortnite server should you be on, and why does it matter?
The Fortnite servers are spread around the world. For the most part, you’ll know which server you’re in from which region's games and tournaments you compete in. Recently Epic has made some big changes to the servers which could have real ramifications for players hoping to actually get involved in Fortnite esports.
We’ll run through everything you need to know about the servers and why Fortnite ping is so important.
Contents
Are the Fortnite Servers Down?
Before we actually get into any real problems with the Fortnite servers and how they affect the game, it’s important to know if they’re even running. Epic does maintain a public-facing status for its servers. By checking the Epic Games Public Status, you can see if the Fortnite servers are up and when they’ll next be down for maintenance or one of the Fortnite patches. That's where you'll see if the servers are up or not.
From time to time, there are problems with unique game modes. Like Fortntie Creative not working. However, when it's just one mode and not the full game, there's likely no problem with the servers. Although, your performance might vary depending on how far you are from their location.
For the most part, the servers being up or not doesn’t entirely depend on your location. Even though the answer to what City are Fortnite Servers in is pretty diverse, they tend to either be all up or all down. It’s very rare for one server to go down and not the others.
Where are the Fortnite Servers?
Fortnite has quite a few different servers! There are multiple servers for some regions, although only a single server for bigger areas with a smaller slice of the Fortnite player base. Even within servers there’s specific locations where you can get even lower ping.
If you’re interested in where your Fortnite server physically is, this is how the world is divided up. It’s the public information, but not quite what city Fortnite servers are in, since Epic keeps things to just the region:
- NA East (North America East) – Canada, United States, the Caribbean (Atlantic Coasts)
- NA Central (North America Central) – Central United States and Mexico
- NA-West (North America West) – Canada, United States (Pacific Coasts)
- NA (Europe) – Europe and North America
- OCE (Oceania) – Australia, New Zealand, South Pacific Islands
- BR (Brazil) -South America
- ASIA (Asia) – Far east of Russia, Japan, Korea, China, Southeast Asia
- ME (Middle East) – Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, South Asia
Those are all of the server regions Epic currently maintains. For competitive matches, North American regions work with NA Central from mid-Chapter 4. Players have gotten used to Central by now, but west and east are still used for normal games.
This particular change is useful to keep in mind. It shows that Epic can and will move Fortnite sever locations whenever they want.
Those who move to be closer to a server could end up learning this the hard way. So if your ping is reasonable it might be best just to try your best.
There's a big benefit to being close to the server for ping. That means a lot of people might want more detailed locations, not just vague countries. That isn’t entirely public and for good reasons, but some have reverse-engineered their locations anyway.
Why Are the Epic Games Server Locations a Secret?
For the most part, Fortnite server locations down to cities and streets are kept a secret.
The exact address is understandable. It's possible some sweat skin will begin camping outside the physical building, after all, if you're using a Superhero “zero lag” skin why wouldn't you stalk a server too? However, keeping cities secret helps Epic too.
Since ping does affect gameplay, players get annoyed when they lose and blame their ping. Epic doesn’t provide exact locations, because who would that actually help? Having to acknowledge that those in one country of Europe have a bit of an advantage in pro-level tournaments would likely put a damper on things. Not to mention being a bit of a security risk.
We don’t get given the exact location of the servers. For most players though, as long as your ping isn’t anything crazy, you’re not getting too much of a disadvantage compared to those right by the Fortnite servers.
The difference between 25 miles away and 30 really isn't noticeable with a solid internet connection. Both are effectively the same ping. At a certain point, it's your connection doing the hard work.
For very high-level players (best in the world level), it does matter. But those on that level move around to stick close to the servers.
Some locations are more publicly known. For example, there is a European server in the UK, close to London, and one in Ireland. This does mean the UK has significantly better ping than quite a few other European countries, being so close to two different Fortnite servers.
Epic’s server locations likely follow where the player base is concentrated and where server space is practical. They’re where it makes the most sense for them to have an installation for servers.
Some have attempted to reverse-engineer their locations. These are the dedicated server locations based on this.
What City Are Fortnite Servers In?
North America Regions
- Portland
- Columbus
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- Kansas City
- Washington D.C
- Dallas
South America Regions
- Sao Paulo
Europe Regions
- London
- Paris
- Ireland
- Frankfurt
- Milan
- Helsinki
Middle East
- Bahrain
Asia
- Mumbai
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Seoul
- Tokyo
Oceania
- Sydney
You can probably spot some of the discrepancies here. There are some areas much less represented than others. There are tons of Fortnite servers EU, but other parts of the world are worse served.
These are based on fans trying to figure out where the servers are located. Although, they might not be 100% accurate. It's best to use this more as a guideline.
Fortnite Server Locations Map – Where is Every Fortnite server located?
If you want to visualize the Fortnite server locations a little better, this map should help. Bear in mind that the Fortnite server locations aren’t specific though. Epic does keep some stuff private.
These locations are only down to the city, the exact spot street to street isn’t accurate. Even though, what city are Fortnite servers in is more player guesswork than fact.
The server locations also come from players trying to narrow down where the locations are. These aren’t official server locations and there could be some errors in our understanding of them. These are the best cases for the servers events like the FNCS are played on though.
What Fortnite Servers Are in Texas?
Fortnite is played by people all over the world, but a lot of players look towards Texas for the new NA Central servers. This is where the new spot for North American tournaments are held.
The Fortnite server locations for these tournaments are in Dallas. This is central enough to quite a few players. Although, those who moved close to the other servers for tournaments might find their increased ping frustrating since the server for tournaments moved here.
The Dallas server is definitely one of the more notable ones. Epic does change around which servers host things though. And being close toa server doesn’t help for international LANs.
We don’t know exactly where in Texas the Fortnite server location is, but there seems to be one in Dallas somewhere.
Given that the FNCS LAN has been held here, it’s probably close enough to that location! Texas has one of the most exact answers to what city are Fortnite servers in.
Where is the EU Fortnite Server located?
The Fortnite EU server has a few different locations. These are:
- London
- Paris
- Ireland (Specific city not known)
- Frankfurt
- Milan
- Helsinki
Those are the servers, but which of these is used for the big tournaments? London is often used for major tournaments, despite being further from a lot of population centers. However, both Frankfurt and Paris have been used in the past too.
Mixing things up like this could be intentional. Moving servers around likely cuts down on players sulking about their ping ruining a tournament for them.
Online events can’t be run with zero ping for everyone, and for the most part Fortnite servers work quite well in major tournaments.
Where are the Middle East Fortnite Servers?
Each region has Fortnite servers we can narrow down to a specific location, what about those in the Middle East? These are the cities where we think Fortnite servers are located for this region:
- Bahrain
This is the only city we think there is a Fortnite server in right now. Although, there could be more.
The Middle East server actually hosts quite a large slice of the world in Fortnite. Having a few extra cities would make sense. Although, as a lower population server in terms of Fortnite’s player base in Chapter 5, it doesn’t need to be as dense as Europe.
Server Regions and Player Numbers
The server regions are a bit muddled for Fortnite. There are some that have tons of different server locations divided up. However, others seem to have continents of people connecting to one far off space.
Which server regions offer the best spread, in terms of average distance to players? Western Europe and North America both have fairly solid distribution with most players being fairly close to one Fortnite server location.
These areas also have more Fortnite players though. Their locations aren’t random.
In international Fortnite tournaments, it’s the EU server that gets the most slots. Which is fairly representative of how competitive the region is, with more players competing here. Next up is probably North America though, which has been especially competitive since the two servers were merged into Central.
What Are the Best Fortnite Servers?
Any time we discuss what the best something is, it’s a bit controversial. There’s a big factor of personal preference. However, for Fortnite server locations there are two ways you can look at this. If you’re talking about the servers with the best players who dominate LANs and set the standard for play in Fortnite, there are two clear standouts. Europe and North America.
These two regions routinely produce the players who kill it at our International LANs. They’re also the Fortnite servers with the most players though and most active esports scene. These servers are some of the best places to play, or watch tournaments. You’ll find matches the quickest and the skill level goes the highest.
Although, if you’re jumping into tournaments in these servers, you might make the finale just to get stomped by the current World Champion. A lot of players hoping to get their early earnings instead switch over to different Fortnite servers.
The less populated servers are less competitive, at least comparatively. That’s Brazil and the Middle East for the most part. While the top players here are very skilled, these tournaments aren’t as stacked as other regions.
Since these tournaments Fortnite server locations are much more spread out, a lot of the players in matches have high ping too. Not as high as a European connecting to the Middle East, but higher ping is a bit more normal in these lobbies.
All the tournaments have their pluses and minuses. However, Europe and North America are the servers that are dominant internationally.
How Do I Change Fortnite Servers?
Changing Fortnite servers is easy! Although, Epic does have a few restrictions you’ll need to know about. You can change the Fortnite server you’re playing in during the vast majority of normal play. These are the steps:
- Go to settings
- Then Game settings
- At the top, there is a section called language and region
- Find matchmaking region in here
- The region that you select if your Fortnite server
- Move your matchmaking region to switch out your Fortnite region
This will change your server for just about everything. There’s one exception though. You can’t compete in multiple servers for the FNCS.
Fortnite’s biggest competition limits you to your home server, so choose one to compete and that’s it. Other Fortnite tournaments can be played in different regions So you can compete in one and then move over to another.
Outside of the FNCS, you’re free to look at how games go on any server you want. Although, on further away servers you’ll obviously have a higher ping. This can get a lot higher in some cases, so be careful switching around all the time.
One other thing you can see in the scene to switch Fortnite servers is your millisecond distance from the server. The closer the server, the lower the ping. This measure should show you which region is the best for you depending on what city Fortnite servers in are closest to your location.
How Important is Ping in Fortnite?
Your distance from the Fortnite servers can make a big difference to your performance, thanks to your ping. Why does 0 ping matter though? There are a few benefits that players will get when they play the game without lag.
Zero Ping has an automatic effect of communicating your actions to the sever back and forth instantly. You won’t ever get problems in-game due to delay. You can act faster than most people on the server, and your reaction times have minimum resistance between being input and represented in-game. Fortnite has special concerns for ping though, especially with building.
When you’re building in Fortnite placing walls and controlling build slots is important at a high level. If a wall between you and another player is destroyed, you’ll frequently both try to place something there. How does the game decide who gets their build there?
Arguably, ping is the most important factor here. If both players essentially build at the same time, whoever has the lower ping gets the wall. They can then control the edits and essentially control the fight. At a high level of Fortnite, this kind of thing is really important.
Ping is an irritatingly big part of playing Fortnite, especially in better lobbies. Having 0 ping in Fortnite is determined by how close you are to the server locations, which means these Fortnite server locations will make a big difference to your performance.
Epic Games Server Locations
The Fortnite server locations are one thing, but within this, there are now a range of games! There’s Lego Fortnite, Rocket League, Racing, Festival, and tons of different games. Even Fall Guys modes. Where are the Epic Games server locations?
The Epic Games server locations are in the same spots as the general Fortnite ones, they’re the same servers for the most part. If you’re close to one of those spots, you’re likely getting low ping on most Epic games.
Ping doesn't matter as much for other games though. You aren't exactly getting an advantage in Lego from being closer. Rocket Racing will play as “polished” just about everywhere, whatever that is worth.
Fall Guys modes are part of Fortnite Creative. The FN Fall Guys maps aren’t played on different servers since it’s all still part of Fortnite.
Fortnite Zero Ping Locations
Where can you get Zero Ping in Fortnite? There are more factors than just your location to think about. However, if you’re in the same city or close to a Fortnite server, you have very good odds of getting roughly zero ping! So, in any of the places listed above, you’ll be closest to Fortnite zero ping locations.
Of course, if you’re far from the cities where Fortnite servers are, you might get a higher ping. It’s really just down to your distance and the quality of your connection.
Why Does Zero Ping Matter
Zero ping means no latency to the servers, which means it's like playing a single-player game. Simply having a lower ping than other players increases your chance of winning drastically. While getting absolute zero is hard, the closer you can get the better.
Fortnite has its own mechanics which ping seems to unfairly weigh on. For example, build fights where you’re trying to take a wall. If both players input a wall at the same time, the faster ping wins.
This means it can get quite frustrating to play with higher ping. Although, you can adapt. Like by avoiding stand offs with a 50/50 over a wall.
Fortnite Servers EU
The Fortnite EU servers might seem quite dense compared to other continents. Once you keep population size and density in mind though, the number of Fortnite servers EU makes perfect sense. These are the locations for Fortnite in the EU:
- London
- Paris
- Ireland
- Frankfurt
- Milan
- Helsinki
How Many Servers Fortnite Have?
In terms of how many servers Fortnite has, it’s hard to pick an exact number since any location can contain more than one physical server, but if you’re just wondering about the server locations where the game is hosted it’s simpler. Fortnite has as many as 27 server locations.
Each of these is spread out across the world. In theory, they should provide players with quick access to a nearby server for a reliable connection to the game. It isn’t always perfect though, unless you live in one of the Fortnite zero ping locations.
Why Do Servers Matter?
That’s where all of the competitive servers are. But how do the Fortnite servers actually impact gameplay? If you’re just rolling around pubs, trying to unlock free Fortnite skins and grind out your Battle Pass, it probably doesn’t. Arguably it matters less in Zero Builds too. If you’re trying to sweat with the very best of them though, being far from a server causes problems.
Ping is something we’ve mentioned a lot already. It is a measurement of how long it takes your device to communicate with Fortnite servers. Literally to ping the server and back. If you’re close to a server or have amazing internet, you’ll have a low ping. Everything you do in-game communicates with the server.
If you’re set up to get a high FPS, but you have a low ping, it’s a problem. While your monitor can display things at a faster rate, your actual actions in-game aren’t being communicated from the server quickly enough.
In Fortnite, it causes a few very specific issues with building. In a box fight, taking a wall can decide everything. Often the wall simply goes to whoever has the higher ping. Your reaction speed may be faster, but if it isn’t communicated to Epic Games’ server before your opponent, you’re going to lose.
Can You Play Competitive Far Away from a Server?
High ping is a disadvantage. However, you can play even at a competitive level. You'll need to be aware of the disadvantages though at least in the seasonal FNCS events and Cups.
High-level internet connections can get around the server distance problem. Obviously, being close with a good ethernet connection is better, but you’re still going to be ahead of a lot of the people you run into.
The location of the Fortnite servers is also liable to change. US pros found this out the hard way with the introduction of NA Central. Moving to be closer to a server is almost inviting Epic to take some revenge!
While it can be frustrating to be far away from the Fortnite servers, its impact is ultimately manageable. With a decent internet connection, set-up, and the best Fortnite settings, you can make the most out of your connection.
Ashley is a dedicated Fortnite player, in hour 3,000 of trying to finish above 90th.