Ed Sheeran Turned Down Fortnite Concert, Collaborated With Pokémon Instead

Shape of You singer Ed Sheeran has said he turned down the chance to appear in Fortnite, as he doesn’t play the game.

Speaking on the Warnes Way podcast (thanks, ShiinaBR), Sheeran recalled being asked by his management company if he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his Antisocial trackmate Travis Scott and appear in the game — to which Sheeran declined.

The singer’s reasoning? Sheeran has said he preferred his collaborations to feel authentic by being with things he actually used or enjoyed — and he didn’t play Fortnite. He does, however, play Pokémon — and it was this brush with Fortnite that then preceded Sheeran’s 2022 team-up with The Pokémon Company, which resulted in a Pokémon-infused music video for his song Celestial.

“They asked me to do something for Fortnite, my record label, and I was like… ‘I don’t play Fortnite,'” Sheeran recalled. “I feel like whenever you see my face next to any product, I want it to be next to something I actually do.

“So ketchup, I f***ing love ketchup,” he continued, referencing his collab with tomato sauce brand Heinz back in 2019, where he launched limited-edition ketchup bottles rebranded as Edchup. “Guitars, I play the guitars I [promote]… I think it has to be real.

“So when my record company were like ‘oh, we can put you in a Fortnite game’, I was like, [I] don’t really want to do that, but I do play Pokémon,” he added. “So we contacted Pokémon and that’s why we did the song for the thing. I love Pokémon.”

Many of Sheeran’s own collaborators already have Fortnite skins, including Travis Scott, Bruno Mars and J Balvin. And Fortnite still features some of Sheeran’s music, which is available to buy as an in-game track and an emote. Fortnite also recently collaborated with Game of Thrones, adding a trio of characters from George R.R. Martin’s series into the game. There’s no sign yet of Sheeran’s own unpopular Game of Thrones character, however.

Image credit: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for iHeartRadio.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social