Fortnite's Latest Patch Makes it Over 60GB Smaller on PC

Fortnite's latest patch on PC has reduced the game's file size by over 60GB. The news was revealed by the Fortnite Status account on Twitter. To accommodate the optimizations, the v14.40 is larger than normal on PC, totalling 27GB. The patch is live as of writing and brings with it the Fortnitemares 2020 event, Midas' Revenge.

Please note the patch size will be larger than normal on PC (approx. 27 GB). This is to make optimizations on PC resulting in a massively reduced Fortnite file size (over 60 GB smaller), smaller downloads for future patches, and improved loading performance.

— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) October 20, 2020

The patch promised to "massively reduce" the Fortnite file size by over 60 gigabytes, and mean "smaller downloads for future patches and improved loading performance." After release, that seems to be the case, with Twitter user The_Equalizer74 reporting that the game had shrunk from 99 to 29.5GB. It's an impressive change, likely achieved by more efficiently compressing texture packs. It's also a handy one if your SSD is already being dominated by enormous games like Call of Duty: Warzone. It's not clear if console versions of Fortnite have also seen a reduction in filesize (but they were already considerably smaller than on PC). [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/26/fortnite-x-bts-dynamite-full-choreography-music-video"] For all the details on what the update has brought to the game, including new items and challenges, you can check out the patch notes here, via the Epic Games website. In other Fortnite news, here's the full BTS Dynamite choreography video that debuted in the game's Party Royale mode. You can also check out our coverage of how Nvidia Reflex affects latency in Fortnite. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.