Join us 2026-05-27T18:00:00Z for a Let’s Chat livestream hosted by @Squatingdog , where Epic Games’ Harold Emsheimer will be answering your questions, and sharing more about how Discover works and how it will continue to evolve.
Set a reminder: https://youtube.com/live/tVFD3hs1NZE
Please post questions you’d like to see answered during the Let’s Chat in this thread. Note: all questions are selected by the host and we will try to answer as many as time allows.
Are there any plans to improve the discoverability of new islands, such as adding ‘Trending’ or ‘Top Rated’ tabs since currently it is very hard for new islands to reach the top of discovery?
Thanks, if you need some stats from me (Epic or anyone) - I am happy to share as I am collecting all data from every map that went into the discover since 2023. Also - I hope Tim does know “discover is Fortnite” - with a “bad” discover - there are no people 
Have a great one:)
Question 1:
What are the plans to improve discoverability on islands from small creators? Currently it’s nearly impossible to get any kind of traction with only 10 minutes in Discover.
Question 2:
What’s the reasoning behind not dedicating one slot in the Homebar for Epic’s Picks? It’s a long process that takes months and Epic only features innovating games. Currently Epic’s Picks doesn’t have enough visibility for the amount of time creators wait to get in. If they get in.
Question 3:
What are the plans on improving the Sponsored tab? It’s basically monopolized at this moment and small to medium sized creators are outbid from it.
What do the new Genre rows focus on the most to sort the 120 islands per row? And are there plans to personalise these rows in the future with a mix of island metrics + player interest?
I think this will give a greater chance to show a wider variety of islands that can serve a larger number of players.
Question: How is discovery gonna get more efficent for New and smaller developers?
Question: Why do some maps apear in discovery and some not, even if they have high sophistication score?
Question: Why is it so hard to enter updated and how to enter it?
Question: Is it possible to revive and old map and get in on discovery again after it wasnt for a few months?
Hi there. I’m having trouble getting my map to appear in the “Updated” tab. For the past two months, my map hasn’t been showing up in the “Updated” tab. I’m talking about map 6660-6247-0397. For the past two months, I’ve been releasing major updates where I’ve added new mechanics, reworked the verse code, fixed bugs, added new “anomalies,” and a lot more, but I haven’t been featured in the Updated tab even once. Despite all this, I haven’t been spamming updates; the map has a decent player base, with solid CTR, retention, and other metrics. Please tell me what the problem is. I’m really tired of this, to be honest. To develop the project, I need engagement from players, and to get that engagement, I need the players themselves. Please explain to me why I’ve never been featured in the Updated tab. Thank you.
Question 1
Given that roughly 70% of Sponsored Row ad space is currently concentrated among the same ~20 creators out of more than 100K creators on the platform, bid prices have escalated dramatically, making paid discovery increasingly difficult for smaller teams to access.
Are there any plans to better regulate the market dynamics and create a healthier, more accessible advertising ecosystem with broader participation opportunities?
Question 2
Are there any plans to address the extreme visibility imbalance between the first row and the rest of the tab layout? Right now, the gap in exposure between the first and second row is so significant that even breakout islands reaching strong positions outside the first row often receive little meaningful traction or long-term discoverability.
Question: How do tags work? Do they actually decide in what category the island is visible? If so how much do tags affect and how do other factors affect where the island lands. I’ve seen for a very long time where islands in categories like horror, had nothing to do with horror or horror tags, same with prophunt islands nothing to do with prop hunt, and you can’t say is an error because they stick for a long time. I also had islands in the past land in categories that didn’t know even existed and had nothing to do with my island.
Question: Do you consider creating a FPS shooter category? There are a lot of fps shooter maps and I think is quite important to have a category for it since ballistic is gone. There is a First Person Category but is mostly horror / non shooter maps.
Question: Will sponsor row hit it’s desired behavior? I feel like sponsor row was created to promote and show unique maps and help creative creators (this sounds so weird) to reach an audience. From my previous experience there were about 100 creators per month promoted and half of them were permanently there. Maybe things have changed but I hope this row, since is a paid row, is not affected by bad actors and exploiters.
I hope guys bring back the lets chat discovery and maybe keep it as a monthly or bi-monthly discussion.
Can the FIRST-PERSON category get added back? There seems to be not as much support for first person maps anymore especially since ballistic has been removed (First Person Expanded FOV feature or pickaxe animations would be more good updates too…)
Will you only allow the use of AI for maps that reflect the game’s content? And Small creators like me will have a better chance, and at least one chance of being featured to gain a player base other than through social media, if they meet the requirements and respect the rules, like a mod site?
Why is roguelike category gone? It has literally killed the category. Visibility makes no sense. This is killing games
Is “Discover” in the room with us now?
Question 1
How will Fortnite make the discovery algorithm better? Currently, my map barely gets any players but my friends really like it! But it would be more fun if players can play with me in my map only my friends play. In this one Roblox game “Piggy,” they have a build mode section where as soon as you make your map public and there is at least one active player, it will immediately get filled up with people for you to play with them as long as people stay long enough. This is a fun idea, because it fills maps up with people that would usually not be as engaging if there’s not enough people, and it’s both about engagement and social coplay! Not only that, but I also want Fortnite to treat maps as new every time they have a significant or little update depending on the engagement and what they see the map as.
Question 2 (Suggestion)
I have an idea for also Fortnite discovery! What if to make Fortnite maps more discoverable and add less friction to finding maps, we make Fortnite essentially Tiktokified and add a “next game” button that allows you to quickly try out a new map immediately, without the friction of seeing a thumbnail, clicking the thumbnail, deciding if it would be fun to play right now, click select, and finally decide one more time to click play? And maybe it can do it automatically, when the island device says the whole game ended, or there’s a next round and it shows a bunch of recommendations and a next game button? This can significantly improve the friction of moving to another island, making Fortnite’s overall engagement even higher because of the trend of people preferring fast paced interactions and short attention spans, and something new every few unit of time!
Thanks for doing this again!
This then randomly changed around a month ago, to the absolute delight of the community, whereby ALL Epic Picks maps were rotating into Homebar regardless of CCU threshold. However, this only lasted around 3 weeks.
What is the actual reasoning for changing this out of nowhere again by removing that link?
Is there any plans to have this changed in particular;
a) Limit which creators can use Sponsored Row, e.g. those with under 1M Followers on their dev accounts
b) Have a cooldown between how long a map can return to sponsored row
c) Provide personalised Sponsored tabs so we’re not blindly wasting money by having content fed to the entire audience instead of a personalised one e.g. if I want only players who play Box Fights/Zone Wars to see my sponsored post, that should be an option
We’ve noticed some people making multiple accounts to use exploit methods or API abuse to spam their maps into discovery.
What is being done to stop this kind of abuse and clean up the ecosystem so fair creators aren’t pushed out?
Question 2: Why does the current Discover system block the path for new developers?
Right now, it feels significantly harder for any new or small developer to grow compared to before.
Are there plans to adjust the algorithm or add specific categories to give fresh creators and smaller maps a fair chance at visibility?
As a player, checking Discover daily feels repetitive because the exact same maps are always dominating the top spots across every single genre.
Most players don’t want to click “view more” or scroll down endlessly within a category to find new maps with lower player counts. How do you plan to fix this issue and keep the top of each category feeling fresh for players?
[1.a] What is the role of Discover in the ecosystem (for example, find trends and promote them)?
[1.b] How would you evaluate Discover’s current performance?
[1.c] Do you think the current performance is the highest it has been?
[2] Does the Discover team check the forum for suggestions to improve Discover?
We would really like the involvement of the Discover team even if it’s just to turn ideas down (with an adequate reason).
[3.a] Is the minimum development effort requirement to show on Discover still enforced?
[3.b] Have you considered improving communication?
Developers would like to know if their islands don’t meet Discover’s requirements to act accordingly. There is currently a bit of guessing.
[4] Does the Discover team evaluate the effect of the Discover changes on the income of the different types of developers?
Some changes shift income to established teams, for example.
[5] Is there any mechanism to upgrade a tag to a category?
For example, if a tag is used by enough islands, promoting it to a category may be a good idea.
[6] Are there plans to better utilize tags to filter categories or search results?
[7] What stats should a new island hit to dethrone an established island?
