According to Epic Games, Fortnite is currently experiencing a period of "degraded quality" which will affect all players. You may have trouble logging into the game or joining matches because of this. You might also have problems with your locker or receive messages telling you that you are not authorized to play Fortnite. Right now, all of these different issues are believed to be caused by the same problem.
According to the Fortnite Status Page, Epic is aware of the issue and is working to fix it:
Update – We are still actively working to resolve these issues.
Please note that if your friends are not in your friends list, they will be there again when these issues are resolved.
March 17 at 19:23 UTCInvestigate – We are currently investigating issues with login, matchmaking, item shop, parties/friends/messaging, and game services. We will provide an update when these issues are resolved.
March 17 at 18:46 UTC
The issue also affects features like your friends list. Therefore, if you log in and no one is on your list, it will be fixed as soon as the general issue is resolved. There really isn't much you can do about it on your end, as the issue is happening on the game servers, it's up to Epic to fix it as soon as possible.
It's unclear if the issue is somehow related to the 12.20 update which arrived earlier today and introduced helicopters, and the new limited time mode called Spy Games.
