How to spectate in Fortnite

Fortnite allows you to spectate friends and other players, but only in certain circumstances. Here’s how to do it, and what you can get up to while spectating.

Whether you want to learn more about some cool tricks in Fortnite or just relax and watch your friends play, simply watching matches can give you a lot of insight into the Battle Royale.

It can be just as valuable as finding the best landing spots and Mythic weapons, so below we’ve got all you need to know about how spectating works in the game.

How to spectate matches

Below we’ve got a quick rundown of the steps to take to spectate in the Battle Royale for both friends and strangers:

Friends

In-game

1. To spectate in Fortnite, you need to have been eliminated in the match you’re playing.
2. If you’re playing with friends, you can spectate as soon as your Reboot Card has dropped.
3. The spectating screen will automatically start as long as you haven’t been revived.

Strangers

1. You can spectate Strangers in Fortnite once you’ve been eliminated.
2. If you’re working in a duo or trio, you’ll have to wait until your entire team is out of the match.

Spectating friends

The only way to spectate your friends in Fortnite is to get eliminated. When this happens, you’ll be able to start spectating your friends just after your reboot card drops – unless, of course, they manage to get your card and revive you with a Reboot Van. You can continue spectating as long as you remain essentially dead in the match.

You can toggle which one of your friends you’d like to watch after you’re eliminated by using your keyboard arrows on PC, R2/R2 on PlayStation, LT/RT on Xbox consoles, or ZL/ZR on Nintendo Switch.

Spectating strangers in Fortnite

You can watch strangers after you’re eliminated. If you’re playing with friends you’ll have to wait until everyone in your team is dead or can’t be rebooted. If there’s even one person alive on your team, you’ll still be watching that teammate.

Your camera will shift to the stranger who managed to get the kill after the final member of your team is killed. This cycle will repeat if another player eliminates that person, at which point, you’ll end up watching them instead.

There used to be a “Watch Game” feature that would allow you to watch strangers and friends without even being in the same match as them. However, it was eventually removed because it was abused by many, mainly to stream snipe streamers to help out those in the same lobby as them.

What can you do while spectating?

Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you’re useless. There are still some things that you can do when spectating to help your friends secure a Victory Royale.

Make Callouts

When you’re not busy tracking every footstep, it gets much easier to look at your surroundings when you’re spectating. Use this opportunity to spot chests, weapons, or even NPCs, and make them known to your teammates.

Even if a chest doesn’t have amazing loot, there’ll always be something useful in them after all. Some extra bandages or a med kit could make all the difference. So keep your eyes peeled and call out whatever you spot to your pals.

Ping the map

Even when you’re not in the match, you can still feed your friends crucial information by pinging the map when things are looking busy for them.

You can ping to highlight important items which works particularly well if you know where to find some of the best weapons. You can also signal your teammates to pivot to a new location by pinging.

Here’s how to ping the map in Fortnite:

PC

• Open the map with the M key on your keyboard.
• Navigate to the area you want to ping on the screen and press the Mouse 3 button.

PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch

• Open the map via the trackpad.
• Select the place you want to ping with the Left D-pad button.

If you want to highlight enemies or hazards, simply press the Mouse 3 or Left D-pad buttons twice in quick succession and it will signal danger instead.

That’s all you need to know about spectating in Fortnite. For more on the game, check out our guides for the best skins, all collabs and crossovers, weekly challenges, how to play split screen, and how to get free LEGO skins.