Fortnite's 'The End' sees map 'deleted', leaves black hole behind

Players were unable to get into servers as the event commenced, with those waiting in lobbies drawn in to the same vortex as those already in-game.

The rocket launched and a meteor shower rained down onto the map that has seen hundreds of changes across Fortnite's ten seasons.

All Fortnite social media went dark, with the black hole being the only thing featured on their Twitch channel, in their Twitter banner and as the game's Epic Games Store thumbnail. All Tweets beyond the livestream posted from @FortniteGame were deleted and players are still unable to get into lobbies or play the game, instead being greeted by the hole.

#Fortnite became the number one trend on Twitter worldwide as other variants such as RIP Fortnite and #FortniteEvent also appeared. 

Over 5 million viewers were watching in anticipation across Twitch and YouTube, with the former site crashing as a result of the high viewer numbers, with over 1 million watching the Twitter broadcast and 36k on Mixer, the first hour of the event saw hype from across the world of gaming and beyond.

At this time, numbers began to appear above the black hole that seemed random, starting with 11, accompanied by a loud chime.

It was then discovered that it was not an IP address nor coordinates being given out, but when matched to words in the Visitor's transcript reveal a message.

While no one knows when to expect the likely new map nor any updates, Twiter user Lucas7yoshi found a date within the code for the Fortnite website suggesting it will be at least another day before The End ends. Some believed it would link to Columbus Day as Christopher Columbus discovered the 'New World'.

However, the date in the code was then changed to Thursday after this information was revealed so it is unknown if Epic are simply trying to now throw inquisitive users off.