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Epic Games’ Fortnite returns to Apple App Store in US after nearly 5 years

Fortnite achieves instant popularity
Published 21 May, 2025 11:24am
Photo via Reuters
Photo via Reuters

Epic Games’ wildly popular multiplayer shooter game “Fortnite” is available again on Apple’s App Store in the U.S. from Tuesday, capping a ban of nearly five years and marking a major win for the video game company.

Epic Games, a U.S.-based studio backed by China’s Tencent, has been locked in a legal battle with Apple since 2020. Epic Games alleged the iPhone maker’s practice of charging a commission of up to 30% on in-app payments violated U.S. antitrust rules.

Fortnite’s return to Apple’s iOS systems in the U.S. follows an April 30 ruling by a federal judge saying that Apple violated a U.S. court order that required the company to allow greater competition for app downloads and payment methods in its App Store.

The ruling also said that Apple had failed to comply with the judge’s prior injunction order and would be referred to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Fortnite’s return to its App Store. “We back fam,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted on social media platform X.

Launched in 2017, Fortnite became an instant hit, drawing millions of players around the world thanks to its last-player-standing, “battle royale” format. At the time of the ban, Epic had 116 million users just on Apple’s platform.

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“For Epic Games this was a hard fought win that carried a very steep price and may be too late to boost its Fortnite game that is now past its prime,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson.

“For Apple this is another crack in the armor that the services business relies on — the funneling of payments through Apple in order to charge developers for every transaction.” On May 17, Hit game “Fortnite” was unavailable on Apple’s digital App Store around the world on Friday, in the latest episode of a battle between the tech titan and publisher Epic Games.

While Fortnite with its millions of daily players was already unavailable to iPhone users in the United States, the block on downloads of the cartoonish multiplayer shooter now affects the entire globe.

United States

Apple

Fortnite

Epic games