Fortnite mix-up leads to extension for January challenge

Players given extra chance to earn rewards during Week 3 of Season 7

The holiday-themed Fortnite event ended sooner than Epic Games had originally said (Epic Games)

Fortnite developer Epic Games has been forced to extend a popular challenge after an apparent mix-up by its social media channels.

The 14 Days of Fortnite challenge will now run until 15 January to allow any players to earn rewards they may have missed out on.

Fortnite developer David Spalinski originally posted on Reddit that Fortnite players would still be able take part in the challenges after the festive event was over.

"Each day during this period a new challenge unlocks, along with its specific reward," Mr Spalinski wrote.

"Once all 14 days worth of challenges have been unlocked, there will still be a few days to complete them before they go away."

To make up for the confusion, Epic Games initially offered any players who had completed at least one of the challenges would be granted a free item – the Equalizer Glider.

The company has now decided to go one step further by extending the deadline to complete the 14 Days of Fortnite challenges.

Fortnite has become one of the most popular video games in the world since launching in 2017 (iStock)

Epic Games said in a blog post that players who were unable to complete the challenges will be able to earn all of the rewards they may have initially missed out on.

"We communicated an incorrect end date for the 14 days of Fortnite event and did not feel the Equalizer Glider compensation was the right approach," the post stated.

"After further discussion, we've decided to bring back this event early next week through January 15 at 3am ET (8am UTC). We'll also be enabling some of the most popular Limited Time Modes that were available during the event."

Epic Games said all challenges will be available to complete for the entire duration of the event, though progress on partially completed challenges has to be reset.