Fortnite Mutes Sprite That Sounded Like It Was Saying A Slur

Fortnite Has Muted A Sprite After Players Thought It Was Saying A Slur Published Nov 11, 2026, 6:09 AM EST Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Fortnite has issued a hotfix to update a Sprite that has gone viral for all the wrong reasons. A player shared a clip of the Sprite leaping off their back and excitedly yelling a word that sounded a lot like a slur. The offending sound has been quickly patched out of the game, but unfortunately for Epic Games, that has only funneled more people to the clip. Lil' Flacko Has, Quite Rightly, Been Silenced Epic Games The clip was shared by Twitter user @crazyasffr, and in just two days it has been seen 2.9 million times. The offending Sprite jumps off of the player’s back and says a slur before jumping back on. Noticing how much traction the clip was getting, the official Fortnite Status account attempted to put a stop to the video’s virality by replying. “This video is fake, this isn’t a sound Sprites make,” the reply reads. The problem is, that’s only half true. The video is real, unedited in-game footage from Fortnite, so the official claim that it’s fake had the opposite effect the reply was supposed to have and stirred the pot even more, as people called out the account for lying. The part claiming that isn’t a sound Sprites make, however, is technically accurate. The Slur Was Created By An Unintentional Sound Combo It seems the incredibly unfortunate sound you can hear isn’t just the Sprite, but the sound the Sprite makes overlapping with another in-game noise. Together, those sounds make it seem as if the Sprite is saying a word that no one should be saying anywhere, let alone in Fortnite. As reported by Fortnite insider Shiina, despite initially claiming the clip was fake, Epic has now rolled out a hotfix which silences the Sprite to make sure no one else tries to replicate that initial clip, or happens to hear those two sounds combining and comes to the same unfortunate conclusion that everyone else has arrived at after hearing it. I can’t imagine it going over well if a parent were to walk through the living room and hear that word emanate from the TV while their kids are playing Fortnite. While this one isn’t Epic’s fault, just a mistake that no one ever intended or could have possibly foreseen, Fortnite isn’t having the best time right now when it comes to PR. Its Pirate Token remains the main thing its players are talking about right now, even when you account for its unintentionally bigoted Sprite. Between not revealing the odds at first and someone trying to sell one on eBay for $9,000, while it has attracted a lot of players, those inflated numbers are currently paired with much in the way of good publicity. Released September 26, 2017 ESRB T for Teen - Diverse Content: Discretion Advised, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) Epic Games Publisher(s) Epic Games