Fortnite adds Gangnam Style emote to Item Shop

Epic Games has brought the “Gangnam Style” emote to Fortnite’s Item Shop, the company announced last night.

The dance was popularized by K-pop star PSY in 2012, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it nearly 10 years later.

For 500 V-bucks, you can hop around the Fortnite map like you’re galloping on a horse. That’s right, the new Gangnam Style emote is traversal, so you’ll be able to continue moving around while you’re using it. 

One reason it took this long for the emote to finally hit Fortnite, which is now filled to the brim with dances originating from social media video platform TikTok, could be tied to the legal implications of adding the dance.

While Epic ultimately came out of its copyright issues with the Carlton dance unscathed in 2019, the potential of legal trouble may have altered the way Fortnite approaches adding dance emotes. 

With the dance originating from Korean pop culture, Fortnite’s official Korean Twitter account was the first to tease it with a soundless video of characters doing the Gangnam Style dance in a line atop a building.

The official main Fortnite account retweeted that with a couple of “thinking face” emojis before posting a 30-second demo video of the dance, telling fans that it was officially available.