Fortnite joins Halloween Horror Nights as a scare zone

Fortnite will feature at Universal Studios Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights this year, Universal announced on its social media channels. The game gets a scare zone called Fortnitemares rather than a haunted house.

Halloween Horror Nights runs for several months each year at Universal's Orlando and Hollywood parks and is built around haunted houses, scare zones and staged jump scares. Announcements for the 2026 line-up have been arriving in a steady stream, with licensed haunted houses confirmed for Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Hellraiser, Stranger Things and Sinners.

What a scare zone means

Universal has released few details about how Fortnite will be represented. A scare zone is a section of the park dressed to a theme and populated by costumed actors who move through the crowd, as opposed to a haunted house, which is the format that traditionally anchors the event. Dot Esports, working from the teaser image, expects actors dressed as recognisable Fortnite skins and a grounded version of the Battle Bus somewhere on site.

That places Fortnite a tier below the headline attractions, and Dot Esports called the format a disappointment given the size of the licence. It is a lower-cost commitment for Universal than a purpose-built house, and a lower-risk one, since a scare zone can be assembled from costuming and set dressing rather than a walkthrough build.

Games at Halloween Horror Nights

Video game properties have appeared at the event before. Last year Five Nights at Freddy's and Fallout each had their own haunted houses, but both were built on the film and television adaptations of those games rather than the games themselves.

Fortnite has no live-action adaptation to draw on, which makes it the first of these properties to reach the event on the strength of the game alone. That may also explain why it did not get a full house: without an existing screen version, there is no established visual language for the designers to reproduce.

Universal has not announced dates for the Fortnitemares scare zone or said whether it will also run at the Hollywood park.