The Fortnite update v24.01 was announced out of the blue by Epic Games. Considering that it arrived on a Monday (March 20, 2023), this makes the situation even stranger. Nevertheless, the update will commence as usual and the downtime will begin at 4:00 am Eastern Time.
Although this seems to be a minor update/patch, the servers will undoubtedly be taken offline for the time being. Based on past downtimes, this will take place at around 3:30 am Eastern Time. Players enjoying a session of Save The World should log out beforehand to avoid losing progress.
How long will the Fortnite downtime last today (March 20)?
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Since this is a patch rather than a major update, the downtime for today (March 20, 2023) shouldn't last more than an hour or so. Considering the next major update, v24.10 is scheduled to arrive on March 28, 2023, this one will be fairly basic in nature.
The servers should be back online by the time that players in the Eastern Timezone start waking up for the day, around 6:00 am. However, if this update v24.01 is primarily being developed to fix stability issues or other performance-related problems, a testing period will be required. That said, the downtime can be extended depending on the situation at hand.
Fixes and content changes for Fortnite update v24.01
As stated by leaker/data-miner ShiinaBR, players shouldn't expect any major content changes to arrive with the update v24.01. Since this is a minor patch, aside from performance issue fixes, it's unlikely that there'll be anything else. The only other thing that comes to mind is that Epic Games will add in supporting files for the upcoming Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
That said, with new collaborations continuously being added in, the community is speculating that something might be brewing. For starters, with John Wick: Chapter 4 due to release on March 24, 2023, there is a chance of another collaboration.
Although John Wick himself was featured in the Battle Pass of Fortnite Chapter 1 Season 9, other characters were not. Individuals such as Charon, Bowery King, and Caine would certainly make for amazing Outfits in the game. Taking into account the prevalent theme of the season and how Mega City suits these characters, it could potentially work wonders.
Besides John Wick, another potential collaboration may feature Doctor Who. Considering that minor collaborations did occur in-game in the past, this would make a lot of sense. Furthermore, with the official Doctor Who account on Twitter teasing that something's coming, it's always good to expect the unexpected.
Aside from these two, there's nothing else of note that could be coming to Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 2 following the update v24.01. As mentioned by ShiinaBR, this will likely be a run-of-the-mill maintenance patch with plenty of speculated content being tossed into the mix.