Fortnite Delulu, the game’s new battle royale mode with proximity voice chat, has launched to big player numbers but also a surge of complaints around in-game abuse — prompting Epic Games to issue “thousands” of bans.
Delulu enjoyed a concurrent peak of 126,553 players after its launch this past weekend, enough to make it one of Fortnite’s most popular modes over the period.
Set on the game’s main battle royale map, Delulu sprinkles players evenly across its surface and allows them to team up and chat with anyone in their vicinity. Gameplay-wise, the mode is based around the new ability to form drop-in, drop-out squads (which have friendly fire disabled), while the ability to talk with others adds a fresh layer of social interactivity, as players encounter others and try to work out who’s friendly — and who’s not.
Experiences of the mode are wildly mixed, as is perhaps to be expected when dealing with something that relies entirely on the online behavior of others. Some have praised the positive experiences they’ve encountered while playing, but many have highlighted the frequent use of hate speech and slurs, and the targeting of players because of their accent, their age or because they’re a woman.
Reddit is awash with players trying Delulu and reporting back with their experiences and it’s a mixed bag. In a thread titled “My fellow ladies: How’s Delulu,” a woman asks others for their take. The responses detail a list of sexist comments that some women have received, though others state they had more positive experiences.
“It’s been terrible for me so far,” wrote Forever_Winter13. “I’ve been playing solo and there hasn’t been one game where I haven’t been told horrendous things I don’t wish to repeat. I just want to have fun and enjoy the game.”
“For the most part, it’s been completely fine,” wrote Glitter_Fox_. “But there was one group of guys who kept appearing in the same lobbies as me that would purposely hunt down any female voice they heard. They literally would yell ‘equality’ as they shoot you.”
“Just as bad for guys,” countered PlayfulBus8433. “Every French kid and his mother asks you to call him daddy or they will kill you.”
In another thread, a player on Fortnite’s Middle East server highlighted their experience of “rampant” racism and discrimination attempting to play as an Indian in lobbies mostly filled by those speaking other languages.
“It’s like a language gatekeeping squad rolled into a battle royale,” wrote KatsukiNEO. “Worse, I’ve heard racist slurs thrown around casually. Proximity chat has turned into a tool for discrimination instead of fun.”
“Can’t go a single game on EU [Fortnite’s European server] without hearing at least three different people spamming the N-word,” replied CareRarely.
Notably, before the weekend was out, Fortnite developer Epic Games posted to remind players to “remember to report voice chat behavior in-game that violates our community rules. This gives us evidence to quickly take action against rule breakers.” The post highlighted the game’s relatively straightforward method of quickly reporting a conversation they’ve heard, and stated that the company was working on the matter, with “thousands banned already this weekend.”
Remember to report voice chat behavior in-game that violates our community rules. This gives us evidence to quickly take action against rule breakers.
👉 Open the Sidebar and go to the Voice Chat tab
🎙️ Choose ‘Report Conversation’
📩 On the next screen hit ‘Submit’Thousands… pic.twitter.com/Bin5GaqRRV
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 21, 2025
Amid the toxicity, however, other players reported having a better time.
“I have some anxiety with talking to people online that I was expecting the worst out of this game mode,” wrote SpadesofDarkness, in a reddit post full of more positive experiences. “But man, this is genuinely some of the most fun I’ve had in Fortnite. While I definitely have seen a couple of people spamming the N-word, a majority of the people I’ve met have either been really chill or just a hoot to talk to.”
“I had so much fun this weekend,” added meemii8. “My highlights were me running across the map to meet my son and getting shot at by a group. When I shouted ‘no, no I’m just trying to find my son let me go,’ one of them said ‘wait, wait hold up, stop shooting.’ They let me join them and said they’d help look and we went on a Finding Nemo-style hunt across the map looking for him and calling out for him amongst the groups. We found him haha. Also getting to the end and letting a little kid on our team get the umbrella, hearing him so happy made my day.”
“There are so many sweet kids in this mode,” concluded racdcp. “I wish I could shield them all from the sweats and bigots.”
Epic Games is yet to announce whether Delulu will become a permanent Fortnite offering, and will likely be looking over the feedback from this weekend as the game mode goes offline — for now. Delulu is next set to go live during the coming weekend — it’ll be interesting to see if the continued bans (and visible threat of action) will have any impact on player behavior.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
