Fortnite had to officially respond to a strange conspiracy theory claiming that convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein was still alive and playing the popular Battle Royale game. The theory started after people found an active Fortnite account using Epstein’s known YouTube handle.
According to Mediaite, the company posted on X to shut down the online talk that suggested the deceased billionaire was somehow active on the platform under the handle “littlestjeff1.” The official explanation made complete sense, even though the whole situation seemed very odd.
The speculation began after the Department of Justice released documents that showed details about Epstein’s digital life, including his YouTube handle “littlestjeff1.” People quickly noticed that an active Fortnite account was using that same name. Conspiracy theorists immediately jumped on this discovery.
The account activity sparked unnecessary speculation online
Two things made the situation worse. First, the Fortnite account showed activity after Epstein’s death in 2019. Second, a poorly made AI image was going around that supposedly showed the late billionaire in Israel. These two things gave conspiracy theorists enough material to claim that Epstein was secretly playing video games while hiding somewhere.
The game developers quickly stepped in to explain what really happened and confirmed that Epstein remains dead. They said the whole thing was just a prank pulled by an existing Fortnite player. This comes as other Epstein-related controversies continue to surface in different areas.
The developers explained that the account owner had recently changed their name to create drama. “Hey Official Fortnite here, this was a ruse by a Fortnite player,” the company stated. They said “A few days ago, an existing Fortnite account owner changed their username from something totally unrelated to littlestjeff1, following the revelation of littlestjeff1 as a name on YouTube.”
The user was already playing Fortnite but simply updated their username once the public documents were released. It was a clear example of someone trying to get attention from a major news event, and it worked far better than they likely expected.
The developers also pointed out an important detail about third-party account trackers. These trackers only show the user’s current name, not any previous names they used. If you only look at those tracker websites, it would seem like the name “littlestjeff1” has been active for a long time, making people believe the account was created years ago.
The company also confirmed they have no record of Epstein’s actual email addresses being used to create or play on any Epic account system. They checked their systems and found nothing. However, since the public documents were released, people have been creating new Fortnite accounts with similar email addresses and usernames to keep the joke going. Meanwhile, political figures are dealing with Epstein fallout of their own.
Published: Feb 7, 2026 04:15 pm