How do Fortnite Skin Hitboxes Work?

One of the most persistent rumors or theories about Fortnite’s inner workings relates to how the game can have such diverse skins and cosmetics, without having a competitive advantage. Do all Fortnite skins have the same hitbox?

Between the different looks in the game, there are clearly major differences. Even the Default skins have varying sizes. However, once we factor in the more interesting Fortnite skins, it gets a bit crazy. How can the Giant Chicken skin have the same competitive playing field as a short female skin? This has led players for a long time to believe there’s something weird going on with hitboxes. That every character has one of a few hitbox models.

How true is it exactly though? The female superhero sweat skins might be some of the smaller ones, but is there actually any logic behind using them over the bulkier characters? The question really comes down to how much of an advantage skins give, and if they alter your Fortnite skin hitbox.

Do All Fortnite Skins Have the Same Hitbox in Battle Royale?

Something that’s a little hard to believe about the skins on offer in Fortnite is they don’t provide a competitive advantage. Some definitely give an advantage in terms of camouflage, but what about your hitbox? The question, do all Fortnite skins have the same hitbox, might be hard to believe. But as far as we know, they do. Aside from one weird case.

According to dataminers who have dug into the game, to find both Fortnite leaks and information on how the game works under the hood, all Fortnite skin hitbox models are the same. Essentially, no matter what the model displays in-game you do have the same hitbox as every other player.

The smallest female skins preferred by those sweaty Fortnite names in the lobby thorugh to the giant skins mainly worn for shock value.

One good way of visualizing this is to look at one of the most popular Fortnite characters, Peely. Pelly is much taller than your normal skins. Despite him being a banana and not a man in a suit, his head isn’t harmed by bullets.

He’s been in the game so long everyone is kind of used to this, but shoot a Peely at the top of his model and nothing really happens. You have to aim for the normal hitbox’s head, which is around his face. This works on a smaller scale with all Fortnite skins. Everyone has the same hitbox… until recently.

The One Fortnite skin with a Different Hitbox

There’s a single Fortnite skin which dataminers have found actually had a slightly different hitbox, the Giant Chicken. It’s visually much bigger than everyone else which causes real messes with clipping through walls and other areas with his extended parts not having collision. His hitbox is also slightly larger for some reason, but it’s the only time Epic has done this. Everyone else, even the bigger ones, has the same smaller hitbox.

How Do Fortnite Skin Hitbox Work?

Fortnite hitboxes are all pretty much the same, so what makes up the rest of a skin’s body? The hitbox is the core of the character, and some characters can have extra material visually around that. It doesn’t really get in the way during gameplay, and most players probably don’t notice it.

Something you’ll probably run into from time to time is Fortnite’s problems with cosmetics. Skins don’t always load in. Often, players will show up as defaults in your game when they’re using skins. Sometimes it even switches after a fight is concluded. This would naturally cause problems if skins had different hitboxes.

Players would be aiming at a hitbox that doesn’t match what other players see. Having Fortnite skin hotboxes as a single standard size stops this from causing problems.

Different Sizes Still Effect Gameplay

Pretty much all Fortnite skin hitboxes are the same, but does that mean skins don’t affect things? No. Skins of different sizes do still impact your gameplay. It’s much more of a factor than how rare your Fortnite skin is.

For a start, big skins take up more screen real estate. It can be a problem for the especially big ones, who can block out major parts of the screen. Smaller skins also seem to perform better in an extremely minor way, at least if the “zero-lag” clean skin thinking of pro players is true. Then there are skins which have camouflage in one way or another.

There’s plenty of minor ways that your pick of Fortnite skin affects gameplay. However, skins do have the same hitboxes.