Fortnite Players Are Chasing a 1-in-137,500 Pirate Shop Token, and the Claims Keep Rolling In

Fortnite players are tearing through treasure chests looking for one of the rarest rewards Epic Games has ever offered. The Pirate Shop Access token lets lucky players claim almost everything in the Item Shop without spending V-Bucks, but finding one is proving remarkably difficult.

The reward arrived November 1 with Fortnite's Treasure Hunters mini-season and One Piece crossover. Players who find the token receive two separate opportunities to claim free cosmetics, each lasting 14 days. The first must be activated by December 15, 2026, while the second can be used in 2027.

Eligible outfits, emotes, pickaxes and other cosmetics claimed during those periods stay in the player's locker permanently. Real-money purchases, gifting and Battle Pass rewards are excluded. Players can also claim only one free Sidekick they don't already own.

After nearly a week of players demanding answers, Epic finally revealed the official drop rates on November 7.

The chance of finding Pirate Shop Access in a normal chest is just 1 in 137,500.

Those odds have remained unchanged since the season began, according to Epic. The exception is Treasure Hours, when the drop rate receives temporary boosts. Some sessions offer 1.5 times the normal chance, while a special November 7 session doubled it.

Even with those boosts, the odds are rough.

Opening 1,000 chests at the normal rate gives a player approximately a 0.7% chance of finding at least one token, assuming independent drops. It takes roughly 95,300 chests just to reach a 50% chance. There's no guaranteed reward after opening a particular number.

That hasn't stopped players from hunting.

Social media has been filling with screenshots, gameplay clips and posts from people claiming they've unlocked the prize. One of the earliest documented winners, a player known as snowslept, shared footage of a successful chest drop on November 1.

Other players have spent hours searching without anything to show for it.

But exactly how many people have found Pirate Shop Access?

Nobody outside Epic appears to have a reliable answer.

The company hasn't published a running total of successful drops, and there's no official public tracker identifying every winner. While some players have shared footage of their rewards, other claims are supported only by screenshots or social media posts.

There's also the squad-sharing feature to consider.

When one player finds Pirate Shop Access, their teammates receive it too. That means a single successful chest can reward up to four people, making the number of players showing off the token different from the number of winning chests.

Meanwhile, theories about improving the odds continue circulating online. Some players have suggested wearing particular skins, opening specific chests or landing at certain locations.

There's no verified evidence that any of those tricks work.

For now, the only established ways to improve the chances of finding Pirate Shop Access are to open more chests, play with teammates and take advantage of the boosted rates during Treasure Hours.

With the Treasure Hunters mini-season scheduled to end December 5, players still have time to search, although even thousands of opened chests may not be enough.

And for anyone lucky enough to find the token, there's another decision to make: when to activate those 14 days of free shopping.