Do you need Xbox Live to play Fortnite?

While the Internet has opened up gaming in ways unimaginable from when I was a kid, it has also created a whole slew of technicalities and considerations. For online titles like Fortnite, the norm was to require an online subscription through console services like Xbox Live Gold to play.

For PC and mobile players, this was never a requirement, so it didn’t feel entirely fair to those on consoles. Xbox Live has been around since 2002. Has Microsoft gotten hip to the times?

Can you play Fortnite without an Xbox Live subscription?

This answer is a little bit complicated, but in short, yes, you do need Xbox Live to play Fortnite across the various Microsoft platforms. Xbox Live itself is simply the brand name for the online component of a user’s profile within the Xbox ecosystem.

How to create an Xbox Live profile

To create an Xbox Live account, players will need a Microsoft account. For those with a Microsoft-based email address (Hotmail, Outlook, MSN), congrats! You already have a Microsoft account. If you don’t have a Microsoft-based email account, you may still have a Microsoft account if you registered your email (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) to use a Microsoft service like Office or Teams. For those without either, here’s what to do.

• Create an Xbox Live account via console
  • On the Home screen, select Add New.
  • Enter the existing email address you would like to use and follow the on-screen instructions. You will also be prompted to select a gamertag if that hasn’t been done already.
• Create an Xbox Live account via PC or mobile
  • Open your web browser and go to the official Xbox site.
  • Sign in or up with your existing email address.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions to complete setup.

One important thing to note is that if you use a non-Microsoft email address to create a Microsoft account, that Microsoft account password should be different from your email password. As such, doing something like resetting your email password won’t change the password for your Microsoft account and vice versa.

Do I need Xbox Live Gold to play Fortnite?

The more pertinent question is, “Do you need Xbox Live Gold to play Fortnite?” No, you do not. Back in April 2021, Microsoft made the decision to no longer require the Gold subscription for online play in free-to-play titles. This was several months after competitors Nintendo and Sony no longer required subscriptions to play Rocket League.

Is Fortnite on Xbox Game Pass?

Digging a little deeper, players don’t need an Xbox Game Pass to play Fortnite on either Xbox consoles or through Xbox Cloud Gaming. This makes for a convenient loophole on iOS devices where Apple has revoked Epic Games’ publishing access.