Few games get to become as much of a cultural phenomenon as Fortnite has. Initially released all the way back in 2017, the game blew up to tremendous proportions and popularized the battle royale genre, but in the years since then, it's grown beyond just a game. Many consider it a social platform, and even concerts have been hosted inside the game, allowing players to come together in unique ways. Even in 2023, Fortnite is still hugely popular, and there's a good chance that you or your kids want to play it.

Fortnite isn't one of the most demanding games out there, similar to many other multiplayer games. Its massive appeal comes partly from the fact that it's not overly difficult to run on most devices, but if you're buying a new laptop and you're not sure which one you should get, we're here to help. This list includes a lot of laptops with different price points and capabilities, so you can buy something that fits your budget and still delivers a solid experience.

Conquer your enemies with these laptops for playing Fortnite in 2023

As far as gaming laptops go, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (2023) is easily one of the best, so if you're looking for a way to play Fortnite, you can't get much better.

Powering the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a 13th-generation Intel Core i9-13900HX processor with 24 cores and 32 threads for incredible performance in just about any task. On top of that, you get up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop graphics, meaning it can breeze through Fortnite matches at the game's highest settings. With up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, any game you want to play is easily within reach.

The display is also fantastic, being a 16-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and Quad HD+ resolution. It's very sharp, and it's even good for more than gaming thanks to the tall aspect ratio. It does have a 240Hz refresh rate, too, so when you do play, you can enjoy smooth gaming and have faster reaction times. Above the display is a 1080p webcam that might come in handy if you want to stream your gaming sessions online.

Design-wise, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i looks and feels premium thanks to its metal chassis, but it is fairly heavy, starting at a whopping 6.17 pounds, and the nearly 26mm of thickness make it pretty chunky, too. Thankfully, it also has a lot of ports, including one USB Type-C port, four USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. That gives you plenty of connectivity for peripherals or even a wired internet connection.

All in all, the Legion Pro 7i is a fantastic laptop for gaming, whether you want to play Fortnite or something more demanding. You need deep pockets to afford it, though.

The Alienware x16 is a laptop you're very unlikely to need, but it's a remarkable laptop for its blend of performance and design that you can't get anywhere else.

It starts with 13th-generation Intel Core processors up to a Core i9-13900HK, with 14 cores and 20 threads. It may seem like a big downgrade compared to the Legion Pro 7i, but for gaming, you really don't need such a powerful CPU. Pair that with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, and you have terrific performance that can run Fortnite at the highest settings without breaking a sweat. Plus, you can configure this laptop with up to 32GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD, giving you plenty of power and space for your games.

The display is also still great. It's a 16-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and it comes in either 165Hz or 240Hz variants. The higher refresh rate will give you faster reaction times if you're a competitive esports player, plus this panel also has better colors, so it might be worth the upgrade if you want the best possible experience. The Alienware x16 also has a 1080p webcam above that screen, and on top of that, it supports Windows Hello facial recognition if you get the 240Hz display model, which is fantastic.

Moving on to the design, the Alienware x16 comes in a unique colorway, mixing a silver exterior with a black interior, akin to what the Dell XPS 15 does. What's really impressive is that it manages to be just 18.57mm thin, making it one of the thinnest laptops with such powerful specs for gaming. It's relatively light, too, starting at 5.67 pounds and maxing out at 6 pounds. The thin design has a slight downside in that all the ports are on the back. However, you'll get a ton of ports, including a Thunderbolt 4 port, standard USB-C, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, mini DisplayPort, RJ45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. Considering the compact design, that's actually a great selection.

The big downside with the Alienware x16 is just how expensive it is, even compared to other high-end gaming laptops. But if you want power in a compact form factor, there's nothing like it.

Lenovo has been on a roll with its gaming laptops, and while the Legion Pro 7i dominates the high-end, the Legion Pro 5 is a much more reasonable option if your budget can't accommodate something that expensive.

You're not missing out on much in terms of performance, with powerful AMD Ryzen processors available up to a Ryzen 7 7745HX, with a total of 8 cores and 16 threads for fantastic performance in all kinds of day-to-day tasks. Plus, you can equip it with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, which is more than capable of running Fortnite at high frame rates. Rounding things out, you can get up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.

The display is also still great, despite the lower price tag. It's a 16-inch IPS panel with Quad HD+ resolution, and you can choose between the base 165Hz refresh rate or a higher-end 240Hz model. The cheaper option may actually make more sense here considering the specs aren't quite as powerful as the more expensive laptops. Despite the lower price, Lenovo still kept the 1080p webcam, but there's still no Windows Hello support.

Where some corners were cut is the design, with this being a thicker laptop, up to 26.75mm at its thickest point, and starting at 5.5 pounds. It also replaces some metal parts of the chassis with plastic, so it might feel a bit cheaper. It still looks clean, though, and it also packs a lot of ports. That includes two USB-C ports, four USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack.

If you want a gaming laptop that's priced more reasonably but still offers a great gaming experience in Fortnite, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 is a great option.

Not everyone wants to lug around a heavy laptop just to play Fortnite, and thankfully, you don't have to. The Asus ROG Flow X13 is a personal favorite as far as gaming laptops go, and while it's not as powerful as the bigger machines, it can still run the game just fine.

Inside the Asus ROG Flow X13 are AMD Ryzen 6000 series processors, up to a Ryzen 9 6900HS, with 8 cores and 16 threads for great performance overall. You also get up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. These components have stricter power limits than bigger laptops, but they're still more than fast enough to run Fortnite if you tweak some settings here and there. You also get up to 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is solid for a compact laptop like this.

It has a much smaller 13.4-inch panel compared to other laptops on this list, but it still has a 16:10 aspect ratio. The resolution is Full HD+ and it has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is just right for a laptop with these specs. This is also a convertible, so the screen supports touch and pen input, making it more versatile. Unfortunately, the webcam only has 720p resolution and no facial recognition, though it does have a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello.

All of this comes together in a sleek black chassis that weighs a mere 2.87 pounds, which is super light for a gaming laptop. This is a truly portable laptop you can take anywhere for school or work. It's also just 15.8mm thin, so portability is a huge benefit with this one. The compact size does have a bit of a downside when it comes to ports, but you still get two USB Type-C ports, one USB Type-A port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack, so there's still enough variety for your peripherals. The laptop also ships with an adapter for RJ45 Ethernet if you need it, and it has a custom PCIe connector that lets you use external graphics cards (in the ROG Xg Mobile series) if you need more power.

Whether it's for Fortnite or any other game, the Asus ROG Flow X13 is a great lightweight gaming laptop. Its biggest downside is that a new model has already been announced, and it has some big improvements across the board. It may be worth the wait, but this is still a great machine.

A larger screen is always better if you want to see all the action in your video games. The MSI Raider GE78 HX is a fantastic example of a powerful 17-inch laptop, and if you want to play Fortnite, it will be a cakewalk here.

Performance-wise, the MSI Raider GE78 HX features 13th-generation Intel Core HX-series processors, up to a Core i9-13900HX with 24 cores and 32 threads. That's paired with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, and together, the CPU and GPU can use up to a massive 250W of power, making this an extremely powerful laptop. On top of that, it comes with up to 64GB of RAM, and it has two SSD slots for storage, with up to 2TB available out of the box.

As we've mentioned, the MSI Raider GE78 HX comes with a 17.3-inch panel, and it has a more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, which may actually be better for a game like Fortnite. The base model is a simple Full HD panel with a 165Hz refresh rate, but most configurations have a Quad HD Panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, making for a pretty fantastic experience. The laptop also includes a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello facial recognition.

In terms of design, the MSI Raider GE78 HX is certainly flashy with a huge RGB light bar at the front, and the laptop itself is massive. It's up to 28.75mm thick, and it weighs 6.83 pounds, so it's not something you want to carry with you everywhere. That large design does have plenty of room for ports, though, including three USB-C ports (one supporting Thunderbolt 4), two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. It's a great setup.

While portability is a big sacrifice with this one, if you want to be fully immersed in your Fortnite sessions, there's nothing quite like the MSI Raider GE78 HX.

If the idea of spending over $1,000 on a laptop for Fortnite sounds outrageous to you, the Lenovo LOQ 15i might be the answer you're looking for. It's still a gaming laptop, but it's very affordable and still powerful enough to run most modern games if you're willing to adjust some settings.

The Lenovo LOQ 15i is powered by 13th-generation Intel Core processors, and the base model comes with an Intel Core i5-13420H, with 8 cores and 12 threads, which is more than enough for solid performance in Fortnite and most other games. On top of that, it comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU with 6GB of memory, an uncommon variant that should deliver solid performance. The cheapest model at writing time also has 8GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is very good.

Of course, the display isn't anything too fancy, but the 15.6-inch panel comes in Full HD resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate, which is more than good enough for those specs. Surprisingly, it even has 350 nits of brightness, which is better than most gaming laptops in this price range. Even the 1080p webcam isn't sacrificed, and that's usually one of the first things to go.

As a cheaper laptop, design tends to take a hit, and this laptop is entirely made of plastic. It's still fairly heavy, though, starting at 5.29 pounds, and it's also over 25mm thick. As per usual with gaming laptops, it does have a good supply of ports, including one USB-C port, three USB Type-A connections, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack.

While there are some obvious sacrifices in design and performance, the Lenovo LOQ 15i is still a fantastic option for gamers on a tighter budget.

Fortnite is lightweight enough to run on almost anything, so you don't necessarily need a gaming laptop to play it. If you want a laptop that can handle both work and play when you need it, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is for you.

That's all thanks to the work AMD has done with its integrated graphics. The 2023 Acer Swift Edge 16 is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7840U processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, but what's more notable about it is that it comes with integrated Radeon 780M Graphics. This integrated GPU goes beyond anything we've seen in this kind of package, and it means you can actually play Fortnite, though you'll need to change in-game settings to make sure the game runs smoothly. The laptop also comes with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so it's a great machine all around.

The Acer Swift Edge 16 also has an absolutely stunning display.This is a 16-inch OLED panel, and it comes in a very sharp 3.2K resolution, making it perfect for everyday use. But it also has a 120Hz refresh rate, so if you do want to game on it, you can enjoy smoother frame rates. You'll need to turn down the resolution of games for them to be playable, but that shouldn't be a problem. Above that display is a Quad HD webcam that should also provide better image quality than most laptops on this list. There's no facial recognition, but you do get a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello.

Despite being a 16-inch laptop, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is very light, coming in at 2.73 pounds, so it's much more portable than you might expect. It looks fairly simple in its OIlivine Black colorway, but that also means you can easily use it anywhere. It also has a good supply of ports, including two USB Type-C and two Type-A ports, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader.

This isn't a gaming laptop, but if you want a laptop for work or casual use while also enjoying some gaming occasionally, it's a stellar choice.

This one is a bit of a wild card, but we wanted to have something for everyone. If you're looking at the very cheapest devices on the market, the HP Laptop 17 is good enough for Fortnite, even if the experience isn't amazing.

The HP Laptop 17 is one of the first laptop to feature AMD's Mendocino processors, or the 7020 series. It starts with an AMD Athlon 7220U, a simple dual-core, quad-thread processor, but it also includes AMD Radeon 610M Graphics. It's a fairly low-end processor, but thanks to RDNA 2 technology, it can actually run some games, even if you have to turn the settings in Fortnite all the way down. You can also upgrade to a Ryzen 3 7320U if you need a little more performance. You also get 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD for storage, though you can opt for more storage if you can afford it.

The display is a 17.3-inch panel with a typical 16:9 aspect ratio, and the base model comes in 1600x900 resolution, though you can upgrade to a Full HD panel for a relatively small price increase. I'd recommend that upgrade if you can afford it. It won't be an amazing experience, but it's about all you can expect for this price. Above the display is a 720p webcam, which is also par for the course given the cost, even if it's not great.

As a 17-inch laptop, it's obviously fairly heavy, coming in at 4.58 pounds, which makes sense for a cheap laptop that's so big. It comes in four colorways to choose from, so you have some room to choose what look you prefer. Despite the large size, it doesn't have that many ports, including one USB-C port, two USB Type-A connections, HDMI, and a headphone jack. It's a solid enough selection, but not overly impressive for such a large laptop.

This isn't a laptop most people should buy for gaming, but if you're really looking for the cheapest possible option to play Fortnite, this is probably it.

With cloud gaming becoming increasingly popular, Fortnite has become one of the more popular titles to play this way, and the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is the best way to play it. This is a Chromebook made for cloud gaming, and since Fortnite requires an internet connection anyway, it's a great fit.

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE isn't made for traditional gaming, and it only comes with an Intel Core i5-1240P processor without discrete graphics. It does have integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics to run some light games, but that's not the point of this machine. You'll be using it to play Fortnite through Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now. It also includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

While it doesn't have the processing power for gaming, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE does include a great display for it. The 16-inch panel comes in Quad HD+ resolution (and a 16:10 aspect ratio), plus it has a 120Hz refresh rate. Some streaming services now support gaming at up to 120 FPS, and this laptop is ready for that. The laptop also includes a 1080p webcam, which is always good to see.

A benefit of not being made for gaming is that the Acer Chromebook 516 GE can be relatively lightweight, coming in at 3.75 pounds. It's a portable laptop you can take anywhere, but you can use it to play Fortnite and other games, as long as you have a stable internet connection. To help with that, the laptop includes an RJ45 Ethernet port for a wired internet connection, alongside two USB Type-C and one Type-A port, HDMI, and a headphone jack.

While it's not a gaming laptop in the conventional sense, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is still a great option if you plan to be online all the time anyway, and you want something affordable.

Best laptops for playing Fortnite in 2023: Bottom line

All kinds of laptops are capable of running Fortnite in different ways. Naturally, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is our top pick because it's one of the best gaming laptops on the market, with top-tier performance, a great display, and a premium design made almost entirely of metal.

Of course, there are cheaper laptops can run the game. The Lenovo LOQ 15i is one of the best affordable gaming laptops you might want to consider, but if you need to go even cheaper, the HP Laptop 17 can also run the game if you're willing to turn graphics settings all the way down.