Forget Fallout, Fortnite’s coolest new gaming crossover is with Lethal Company

Chapter 5 Season 3 of Fortnite will be starting later today, and Epic Games has already confirmed new crossovers with Bethesda’s Fallout series and Marvel’s X-Men. However, another crossover skin has leaked ahead of a formal announcement, and it’s honestly the most exciting one: Lethal Company.

While not officially confirmed, frequent and reliable Fortnite leakers HYPEX and ShiinaBR on Twitter shared a render of a skin based on the playable employee characters from Lethal Company earlier today. They also posted a short in-game clip of the skin in the Fortnite Locker, which shows that there’ll be a Lethal Company inspired emote as well; one based on the little dance you use to communicate with other players. It’s not yet clear if these cosmetics will be available at launch for the new season, or if they’ll be added a little further down the line. They’re certainly not part of the season’s battle pass.

Lethal Company was easily one of the biggest surprises of 2023. This indie co-op survival horror game almost came out of nowhere in October, but managed to dominate Steam, becoming the top-selling game on the platform the following month and eventually accruing over 100,000 concurrent players. We even named it the best indie game of 2023, beating out the likes of El Paso, Elsewhere and World of Horror, and it’s not even a complete game; it’s still in early access.

So, it’s not as if it needs the validation; its success speaks for itself. But given Fortnite has primarily stuck to major IPs and famous celebrities for its crossovers, Lethal Company getting its own cosmetics in the battle royale feels like a big deal. Aside from Among Us (which similarly exploded in popularity and became a viral sensation), I can’t think of any other one-off indie games to make a Fortnite appearance. Admittedly, though, Lethal Company probably would’ve been overlooked if it wasn’t massively popular to begin with, so this shouldn’t be taken as a sign that Epic Games will put any indie game into Fortnite.

However, this is the first time in a long while that one of these crossovers has been a genuine surprise. Fortnite‘s had so many of them that, at this point, every other crossover has felt predictable. Of course there’d be Fallout skins, especially after the success of the TV show. Of course there’d be a Magneto skin in the wake of X-Men ’97‘s season finale. Even that rumoured Kingdom Hearts crossover wouldn’t be that surprising. Could any of us have predicted a Lethal Company skin though? It almost makes me wonder if any other breakout indie successes might be considered for Fortnite collaborations. Hollow Knight? Hades? Vampire Survivors? Honestly, when it comes to Fortnite, it feels nothing is off-limits.