Epic Games has revealed the format updates for the Fortnite Champion Series 2026 season.

On September 7, at the LDLC Arena in Lyon-Décines, France, the Trios team of Aleksa “Queasy” Cvetkovic, Egor “SwizzY” Luciko, and Andrejs “Merstach” Piratovs lifted the coveted FNCS Global Championship 2025 trophy and claimed the $400,000 first-place prize. As the dust was still settling, Epic Games announced that the FNCS 2026 season will switch back to Duos as the primary format.

The change doesn’t come as a surprise for fans. However, the confirmation from Epic Games has locked it in. Alongside the shift from Trios to Duos, we can look forward to more LANs in the FNCS 2026 and exciting updates.

FNCS 2026’s biggest tournaments and updates

During the FNCS 2025 season, two significant LAN events were held: the Global Championship and the Pro Am. In the FNCS 2026 season, there are at least four LAN events to look forward to, and the announcement also indicates that one or more LANs will take place in Europe.

Tournaments to take place on LAN for the FNCS 2026 season include:

• Mid-Season
• Pro-Am
• Reload Elite Series
• Global Championship

There’s also the Mobile Series, featuring a $1 million investment from Epic Games, likely inspired by the return of Fortnite to iOS devices in multiple countries in May 2025. Last but not least, Epic Games teased Ranked 2.0, an overhaul of the in-game ranking system.

At the time of writing, LAN event dates, Ranked 2.0’s release date, and nearly all other details are unknown. One thing we do know for sure, however, is that Fortnite esports is on the rise.

FNCS Global Championship 2025’s impressive viewership numbers

According to a detailed report by Esports Charts, the FNCS Global Championship 2025 set viewership records for Fortnite esports in the modern era. With a peak of 954,473 live viewers, that’s a significant increase from 809,854 at the 2024 event.

When looking at the average viewership numbers, 696,100 in 2025 compared to 555,798 in 2024, there’s a massive 25.2% increase. Further, the total watch time increased by 7.9%, despite nearly two hours fever airtime this year’s event.

The FNCS Global Championship 2025 boasts the third-highest peak viewership numbers in history, with the Celebrity Pro-Am 2018 (1,970,982) and the World Cup 2019 Finals (2,334,826) remaining on top of the leaderboard.