Players expected this for a long time.
Psyonix confirmed the 2027 window for the Unreal Engine upgrade with a video shown between the semi-final and final of the RLCS 2026 World Championship at the Dickies Arena.
Rocket League was on Unreal Engine 3 for eleven years. Straight to UE6, making Rocket League the first game built on it.
Epic Games' Marcus Wassmer has put public early access for UE6 at the end of 2027. So Psyonix is shipping on the engine before developers outside Epic get their hands on it, effectively working as the tester for the engine.
The pros building it
The announcement video featured GarrettG, JSTN, zen, Archie and Ferra discussing their involvement. Players have been testing at LAN events across the season, and an active build was reportedly running at the Dickies Arena on finals day.
Psyonix says they're rebuilding the game from the ground up, with more invitations to test will be sent soon.
As expected the game's physics engine will be updated.
The first footage shows a full graphical overhaul. One new feature spotted is an impact indicator on the ceiling, gauging the direction of pinched shots.
The RLCS gap
Reports point to Spring 2027 for the migration, and a shortened RLCS season to make room.
The reported structure will be a 24-team KICK-Off in London's Copper Box in December, a competitive online league, a culminating North American LAN in March, then a break while the transition lands. Competition resumes by August, since Epic is committed to the Esports World Cup through 2028, and EWC 2027 would be the first tournament played on UE6.
A 24-team partner league is also reportedly launching as early as December, replacing this year's eight-team open qualifier format.
None of the RLCS structure has been officially confirmed by Psyonix.
What's still unknown
Whether this is a major update, a new title, or something between. Whether ranks and cosmetics carry over, which for a game with eleven years of item economy is not a small question. We even do not know the minimum specs to run the new engine. Most likely it will be quite reasonable.
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