FORTNITE has become one of the most popular video games on the planet, but that might not save it from having to shut down for good next month.

Rumours have surfaced that the game could be taken down due to an impending copyright infringement lawsuit. Here's the lowdown...

Epic Games Fortnite has become one of the most popular video games with over ten million players

Is Fortnite Battle Royale shutting down in May?

Rumours of Fortnite shutting down were first pointed out by Twinfinite when a screengrab of an alleged tweet from Fortnite's official account started circulating.

The post reads: "Due to the lawsuit against PubG on copyright infringement. We are sorry to inform you that Fortnite Battle Royale Will be coming to an end May 24, 2018.

"Save the world will still be in development and we will roll out ASAP. Thank you all for the support."

Fans needn't worry, however, as the tweet appears to be nothing more than a hoax.

In addition to the grammatical errors and formatting inconsistencies, the tweet is also nowhere to be found on the official Fortnite website, or on any other social media accounts.

Why was Fortnite taken down and is it back?

The news about the game disappearing for good arose when fans were locked out of the game on Thursday, April, 12 when the servers went down for emergency maintenance.

Maintenance began at 3.21am GMT and whilst downtime usually lasts around two hours, it wasn't until 8.07pm UK time that Epic Games tweeted: "The Battle Bus once again operational!"

To apologise for the extended downtime, Epic Games announced Battle Royale players would receive free Back Bling for logging in over the weekend of April 13-15.

Save the World players were also rewarded and owners received a Troll Stash Llama.

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What is Fortnite?

Fortnite is an online video game set in a dystopian world where 98% of Earth's population suddenly disappears, living conditions become difficult, and zombie-like creatures begin the roam the Earth.

After the apocalypse, 'survivor bases' were set-up and each player is in charge of looking after these bases before trying to find a way to return Earth to normal.

Fortnite also includes the hugely successful side-mode called Battle Royale, in which 100 online players are put on a battlefield to fight until death until one player remains.

Since its release, it’s been available to play on gaming platforms such as PlayStation 4, Xbox One, as well as PC and Mac.

At the beginning of March, developers announced they would be rolling out a mobile-friendly version for iOS and Android phones.