Fortnite's brainrot characters ignite a fan revolt

For some fans, Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Ballerina Cappuccina have become a shorthand for Epic Games' priorities

Italian brainrot characters Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Ballerina Cappuccina may have taken over social media in 2025, but Fortnite players aren't taking kindly to the presence of AI-generated skins in the battle royale game. Within a day, fans on the community site Fortnite.gg voted the new skins the worst cosmetics in the entire game. Players who use these skins may want to proceed with caution: some Fortnite fans say they will be targeting any and all brainrots they encounter in-game.

From the moment Epic Games hid a teaser for the two brainrot skins in last month's Chapter 7 season 2 trailer, it was obvious that the inclusion of these characters would be divisive. At the time, some players dramatically announced that the brainrot characters were proof that Fortnite was done for. Since then, Epic Games has lost a staggering amount of goodwill from some of its hardcore fan base. People were already angry that Epic Games increased the prices for V-bucks. Then, the company laid off over 1,000 employees — including the person who designed Fortnite's most recognizable character, Jonesy. Sentiment curdled even further as fans learned that one of the employees was terminally ill and lost his life insurance as a result of the layoffs.

Fans were also incensed that Epic Games was reportedly paying millions of dollars for bottom-of-the-barrel creator maps, like Steal a Brainrot, while refusing to retain its employees. Branded collaborations, which would normally excite players, were framed by fans as a costly and unwanted expenditure.

"They did not deserve that much money, that money could have been used on better things," Fortnite influencer Sypherpk said in a late March livestream, referring to monetized user-created maps.

Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Ballerina Cappuccina have now made their official debut to a game full of riled-up fans. "One thousand people lost their jobs for this," reads one Reddit post, where a brainrot character holds up the Gen Alpha meme 6-7. While some people in the comments theorized that Epic Games plans collaborations well in advance, the critique here wasn't intended to be literal. For these fans, combating dwindling player numbers with characters who appeal to the lowest common denominator was shorthand for Epic Games' misplaced priorities. Even if employees didn't actually lose their jobs over brainrot skins, fans believe that the characters helped normalize the use of AI-generated assets in Fortnite. At a time when there are suddently fewer actual humans working on the game, celebrating the most recognizable AI memes starts to take on a more sinister undertone.

Whatever way you interpret the situation, the most vocal contingent of Fortnite's playerbase is currently on fire. Fans say they will target and bully anyone donning brainrot attire, and are urging each other not to spend money on the skins. While the current Fortnite season is themed around a war where players have to pick sides, these fans say they're going to come together to combat the real enemy: Team Brainrot. And once again, some fans are threatening to drop the game altogether.

So, is this apparent boycott working? According to the tracking website Fortnite.gg, April's peak player count is around half of what it was this time last year. The month is just starting, however, and Epic Games does have some exciting planned updates. But if these brainrot skins were offensive enough to drive players away from a game full of eyeroll-worthy crossovers, Epic Games will need more than a Star Wars playhouse to win them back.