Replays is a tool that packs a lot of potential when it comes to your social media game. You call the shots (literally!) when you use Replays in your games.
Whether you're a content creator, an island creator, or a player who wants to boost your gameplay by studying your own games, Replays is the way to get an immersive view of games you've played.
Why Use Replays?
You can use Replays for:
- Studying gameplay from a recorded game.
- Debugging game mechanics by watching a play session and seeing how things work.
- Making content to demonstrate things like speed builds or other in-game activities.
- Showing a specific game mechanics or other island features to collaborators.
- Setting up specific shots and sequences for promotional trailers.
- Taking still shots (screen captures) of an island.
- Live streaming with footage you can control or edit.
Replays does not make videos. It makes a replay of a game that can be studied, shared with other Fortnite players, or captured using screen-recording software. What it also does is provide a way to view and control the saved gameplay, look at the game from various angles and perspectives (including from the viewpoints of different players or teams), and set up specific shots or video clips.
Setting Up Fortnite to Use Replays
Make sure your settings are as high as your device can handle before making a replay. This will help you capture the best images and videos possible. There are two places you'll modify settings:
- Fortnite Game settings — These settings affect every Fortnite game or experience you access.
- My Island settings (optional) — The settings you change here only affect the Creative island you're currently on.
For best results, apply the settings below before making your replay.
Game Settings
- From the Fortnite lobby, the Creative hub, or a Creative island, press the Esc key, click the Settings (gear) icon, then select Settings to open the Game menu.
- On the VIDEO tab, under DISPLAY, set the WINDOW MODE to FULLSCREEN. This adjusts the resolution to the maximum your screen supports. Your game will run slightly faster, but it will be harder for you to interact with other applications.
- Go down to GRAPHICS QUALITY, and set QUALITY PRESETS to EPIC. This automatically sets the other features under Graphics Quality to best possible settings based on what your hardware supports.
-
You can leave other settings on default. Click APPLY to save these settings.
To restore the default values, click the RESET button at the bottom right of the screen. Before you exit, click the APPLY button to save your settings.
- Select the GAME tab, and scroll all the way down to the REPLAYS settings group.
- Make sure RECORD REPLAYS is set to ON, and set RECORD CREATIVE MODE REPLAYS to ON.
-
Save your changes.
- (Optional) Go to the AUDIO tab, and adjust the MUSIC volume to 0 so the lobby music doesn't interrupt your video capture. Save this change.

My Island Settings
If you don't want HUD messages showing in your video, you'll need to do this final setup step. If you want to include HUD messages, skip it.
While the changes on the Game menu apply to all the islands you access in Fortnite, My Island settings affect only the island you're currently on.
- Go to the island where you want to make a replay.
- Press the Tab key, then select My Island.
-
Select the UI tab.
- Set HUD INFO TYPE to NONE.
Save your changes when prompted.
Using Replays
With Replays, you can access a replay of a game in 3D, change cameras and camera angles, zoom in or out, follow a specific player or team, and more.
Use Replays to stage shots or video clips as though you were there, holding the camera. And virtually speaking, you are!
Access Replays
From the lobby, click the CAREER tab at the top of the screen, then the REPLAYS button near the bottom. This will open a list of captures from your recent gameplay.

Select a replay by clicking it, then:
- PLAY the selected replay
- DELETE it (this removes it from your local hard drive)
- RENAME AND SAVE it to your local drive (unsaved replays are called exactly that)
- OPEN REPLAY FOLDER to see where the file is stored on your local drive.
Click the REFRESH button to update the screen contents.
VIEW STREAMING REPLAY is a way to watch a live game using Replays, but you'll need the Session ID for the game. You'll find a string of numbers and letters to the right of your name in a game. That's the Session ID.
Play Back a Replay
When you click PLAY, the replay video will open and start to play. Note that it always starts from the lobby because the replay is a recording of the entire experience.
Use the video progress bar to quickly scrub through the replay.

Playback controls:
Icon | How to Use |
---|---|
![]() |
Standard video controls. |
![]() |
Toggle the camera settings panel open or closed. |
![]() |
Click the curved arrows on the left or right of the player name to move the camera to a different player. |
![]() |
If teams are involved, the team members of the selected player will also display on the bottom left of the screen. You can also click directly on a team member to move the camera to this player. |
![]() |
On the top left of the screen, you can see the number of players engaged in the replay, and the number of teams. |
![]() |
Hide all controls. This is useful when you're shooting a video of a game and already have the camera fully set up. To see the controls again, press Esc twice. |
![]() |
Click to select a different camera view. |
![]() |
Speed up or slow down the replay. |
Use the following keys or key combos to move the camera:
Keys | How to Use |
---|---|
![]() |
Use the center mouse button or mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Zoom is not active in Gameplay camera view. |
![]() |
Use left or right mouse buttons to adjust camera position. |
![]() |
Hold down the Q or E key on your keyboard while moving the camera with your mouse to pan up or down. |
![]() |
For drone cameras only: this controls the drone's height. |
![]() |
For drone cameras only: use the WASD keys to change the camera position. |
![]() |
For drone cameras only: this setting controls the speed of the drone's movement independently from the speed of the replay. |
Change Camera View
You can change the camera view in Replays.

Camera view | What It Does |
---|---|
Third Person | The default view, this follows a selected player through the game. |
Drone Follow | A drone camera follows a player throughout the game, but can focus on other things, not just your main player. |
Drone Attach | This drone camera has more freedom of movement. |
Drone Free | This drone camera operates independently of your players. |
Gameplay | Plays the replay from the POV of the camera attached to the selected player. Unlike Third Person, you cannot control the camera at all: it strictly follows the player's original camera movement. |
Change Camera Settings
When you click the camera settings toggle in the controls, this opens the camera settings panel.
The first tab is for focus and exposure.

The settings above apply to all cameras except Gameplay, where these focus and exposure cannot be changed.
An important setting is Aperture. This determines how much of an image is in focus.


The next tab is for effects.

Some cameras have slightly different settings, but an important setting that's present for all cameras is High Quality FX. For best results, set this to On for any camera you use.
The final tab is for game info.

Changing the Name Plates option to On expands more setting options.


Want to control the lighting? Select the time of day, then set it to pause there.
Using Replays for Screenshots or Videos
In Replays, when you find a moment in your gameplay that you want to capture, you can prepare the shot, then record it using screen capture or screen recording software.
Leaving Replays
To exit Replays, press Esc, then click the exit arrow at the bottom left of the screen.
Also see Making Videos in Fortnite and Creating Thumbnails and Screenshots.
Why do my Replays Become Invalid?
Replays become unusable because the context changes too much. The Replay technology saves a simulated network stream, as if you were spectating live gameplay. For example, a replay from one season might show a flat area, but the next season, it becomes a jungle biome. Playing the Replay in the new context doesn't make sense.
The ever-evolving gameplay features present similar challenges. The data layouts may no longer match as features, code, and content evolve. Building backward compatibility to overcome these challenges isn't feasible. What this means is that if you want to capture still images or videos from a replay, you need to do it before a chapter or season updates.