Today, Fortnite On X announced the end of square thumbnails.
No more Square Thumbnails needed for island publishing 📣
— Fortnite Creators (@FNCreate) June 16, 2025
We tested them in Discover to see if showing more tiles would boost engagement, but we didn't see a meaningful increase, so we’re sticking with rectangles!
Square Thumnbnails were first added as an experiment in discover in March 2024.
Discover With Square Thumbnails
The goal was to fit more islands on by providing a similar to roblox UI on some tabs of discover. This would have also been a "more-familiar " look to creators from roblox.
Many creators disagreed with the changes due to the inconsistant scaling in tabs, and therefore the impact this had on visibility.
In recent updates, players have noticed square thumbnails had quietly stopped appearing in discover.
Today, this comes clear as the creative team have made the descision to scrap them once and for all. Epic stated, throught testing them in discover didnt provide "a meaningful increase in engagment".
Discover Today
Personally, i think this is a great change, as i didnt like the look of square thumbnails.
Thats it for now See you soon Olilz
Olilz
Hey! I am Olilz! I Have been playtesting maps for FCHQ for over 175 weeks! I enjoy creating maps myself & creating new experiences. I love to code and make yt videos!