Our team spent 3 months working over 10 hours daily to deliver a massive update to our UEFN map. However, after releasing it, the map received no push whatsoever—it’s completely invisible to players.
After the release, we even issued several hotfixes, especially addressing issues caused by the upgrade to UEFN version 36. Still, nothing changed in terms of visibility or discoverability.
We’re honestly confused and demoralized. Is it true that only new projects/maps are being pushed by the algorithm now? If so, why is this nowhere stated officially? It seems like updates to existing projects are completely ignored by the discovery system.
We believe our update deserved to be seen. Right now, it feels like all our efforts were in vain.
Please clarify how this works. Should we abandon updating existing maps and only focus on releasing new ones? What’s the point of supporting long-term projects if the system doesn’t acknowledge them?
We’re honestly in despair. Our team feels completely disheartened.
Looking forward to your response and clarification.
Please select what you are reporting on:
Unreal Editor for Fortnite
What Type of Bug are you experiencing?
Publishing
Steps to Reproduce
Develop and publish a UEFN map (our map has been live for some time).
Work for 3 months on a major update (~10+ hours daily by the team).
Publish the update through the usual UEFN process.
Apply hotfixes after UEFN v36 release.
No change in visibility and discovery.
Expected Result
After a major update, the map should receive renewed visibility or exposure through the discovery algorithm (similar to how new maps are treated).
Players should be able to find or see the map more easily.
The algorithm should recognize significant updates to existing maps and reintroduce them to discovery channels.
Observed Result
No push occurred at all — the map remains invisible in discovery.
Zero visibility boost despite a large update and multiple hotfixes.
Feels like the algorithm ignores existing projects regardless of the scale of the update.
Platform(s)
PC
Island Code
8200-1110-2394
Additional Notes
We are extremely disheartened. Our team worked hard every day for months to deliver a quality experience for players. If only new projects are promoted, this needs to be clearly stated by Epic, as right now it’s not documented anywhere. Otherwise, there is no motivation to continue long-term support for any live project.
Please clarify if this is intended behavior or a bug in the discovery system.
It’s understandable to feel frustrated after spending a lot of time working on a map, however your post reads like a rant and besides sharing a feeling of frustration, there is nothing Epic can act on.
You map was pushed to New and Updated on June 8 for about 45 minutes total. Yes, this is a short time and didn’t get you many players, but the algorithm tried your map and concluded players weren’t interested enough.
Epic detailed how Discover behaves in a recent blog post : How Discover Works | Fortnite Documentation | Epic Developer Community
A significant amount of work or time spent cannot guarantee exposure beyond giving a new shot in Discover (and it did), and showing it to your followers. Fortnite needs to show its playerbase what they want/like to play and there is no guaranteed correlation between that and what you consider a “major update”.
Some ideas that take long to implement are only liked by a tiny group of players, and others that take a small time to do can be universally liked. If you rely on Discover and not your own community, you have to understand that.
Not to mention teams all work at different paces and a team may do the same work as another in significantly less efforts and time. What team would be prioritized in that case? The one that did things quickly and efficiently from experience, or the one that spent more time?
Thanks for your response — I appreciate you taking the time to explain things and share the blog post. I understand the need to prioritize what the broader playerbase wants and that effort alone doesn’t guarantee exposure.
That said, I want to point out a few things that don’t fully align with what happened in our case, and maybe raise some questions worth considering:
The map being pushed for 45 minutes — I’m not sure this qualifies as a real test. That window occurred right after a UEFN update (v36), during which servers and systems were still stabilizing. Player traffic during that time was minimal, and our analytics confirmed almost no actual sessions. So how could the algorithm “conclude” low player interest when essentially no one played the map?
Quick hotfix = removed from Discover?
We’ve observed — and heard from other creators — that publishing any fix shortly after an update causes the map to instantly get dropped from Discover. In our case, a small technical fix (due to UEFN 36 issues) likely triggered this. Is this intended behavior? Because that effectively punishes creators for maintaining and patching their maps quickly.
Map migration to new accounts = new push
We’ve seen a trend: some teams migrate existing projects to new accounts, publish the same map with minimal changes — and that gets full Discover treatment. This raises the question: does Discover only push “new UGC IDs”? If so, it unintentionally encourages abusing the system instead of updating and supporting existing islands.
I’m not trying to rant or argue — I’m genuinely trying to understand how the system behaves in real conditions. Our team is committed and not afraid of hard work, but we want clarity to avoid wasting time on updates that never reach players due to invisible, undocumented mechanics.
Would be great if Epic could clarify:
Is a post-update hotfix considered a “reset” that disables push?
Is Discover tied to UGC ID history?
How can we best update and maintain long-term projects without losing any visibility?
Thanks again for your time — we’re still learning and adapting, just hoping for a fair and transparent system for everyone.
Some of the issues Epic addressed in the recent update, and others are planned to be resolved after the summer. Can’t remember the exact date. But yes, these have been known issues with long-standing workarounds.
Honestly, I’m very skeptical that anything will change anytime soon.
Your best shot might be to migrate the project to a new team/account and give it another try.
I look also looked and it appears this map was pushed to players partly during down time on Saturday for the new season and update and just as uptime was announced. People were focused on checking out Battle Royale, not Creative at that time.
To OP keep pushing updates and you will get in again, shoot for like once per week. You did get in and to be honest that is what a majority of creators see. You cant rely 100% on Epic and Discovery for marketing and your success in today’s environment. But I do feel your frustration…every single day.
Agreeing with @ZeroShotBob on this one. You did get your 45min of discover and remember it’s not about the time it’s about the impressions and Epic has been shooting for 50k impressions. We have many times received 20min slots in discover but at this point we kind of know that everyone is getting at least their 50k impressions. Don’t give up, creating the map is just the first part. Now it’s the hard part. If you got in discover there’s a good change you can get back in if:
personally, I would do everything you can to continue to get plays on the map.
connect with other creators that do group plays of their maps
submit your maps to any reviews or testing
play your map with your team, friends, community
continue to push updates at least once a week with actual content updates/changes