Maybe I’m just a big old baby, but nothing sounds more nightmarish to me than dropping into a Fortnite lobby full of teenagers and being forced to engage with them via proximity chat. Epic seemed to think it was a good idea, though, launching its Delulu mode over the weekend.
And hell, Epic was right: over 126,000 concurrent players flocked to it during its weekend stint, according to IGN, making it one of the most popular game modes on offer during that time. I suppose a lot of that’s down to the hunger for something new—Blitz Royale found similar success when it first landed a couple weeks ago—though, for some, the reasons for playing are perhaps more sinister.
That’s because the entire basis of Delulu is dropping in solo and making use of proximity voice chat to team up with other players—and then potentially betraying them. Sounds kind of fun in practice but hey, this is the internet we’re talking about. What’s an open voice chat without having a slur or two hurled your way, eh?
It seems as though a small percentage of players have taken Delulu’s novel idea and weaponised it for some pretty toxic behaviour, with Epic revealing that “thousands [were] banned already” during the weekend. A separate post from the Fortnite Status X account also said the developer was “moving faster and stricter to catch troublemakers.”
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/Bin5GaqRRVSeptember 21, 2025
It’s unsurprising, though taking a look at the Fortnite subreddit reveals a pretty healthy mixture of posts ranging from players who found Delulu a total game changer, to those who seemed to have a whole host of bad encounters with some bad eggs. “This is one of the most toxic modes Fortnite could’ve ever added,” one commenter wrote, while another said Delulu is “terrible if you’re a woman that speaks, I’ve gotten harassed both times I tried it”.
But others have had a whale of a time, with one poster saying “I really hope they keep having Delulu weekends, genuinely some of the most fun I’ve had with Fortnite in YEARS,” and a Reddit post saying that “the interactions, the small storylines and the overall humour” has cemented Delulu was “the greatest thing since [Epic] even added BR to Fortnite.”
If you missed Delulu, there’ll be one more chance to dive in this weekend between September 26 and September 29. Hopefully Epic doing cleanup on a whole bunch of voice chat-related reports will mean the second run is a little more genial. I do wonder if we’ll get any more Delulu weekends after this one, or if the extra pile of reports is simply more work than Epic wants to deal with.
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