What just happened? After being missing for almost five years, Fortnite is back on the iOS store in the US. The 1,740 days since it was removed have seen Apple and Epic Games fight things out in the courts, but now it has finally returned to Apple’s App Store in the US, as well as the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the European Union.
Fortnite is now searchable and downloadable on iOS in the US, meaning iPhone and iPad owners can once again enjoy the battle royale giant on their devices. Unsurprisingly, Fortnite has already taken the top spot in the store’s Action Games category.
we back fam https://t.co/X14bCXoylB
– Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 20, 2025
There’s been a lot going on in the Epic vs. Apple drama in recent times. As a reminder, Fortnite was removed from the App Store in 2020 after it introduced a direct payment method in the game that circumvented Apple’s App Store commission. It was also removed from the Google Play Store for the same reason.
Thanks to everyone who supported the effort to open up mobile competition and #FreeFortnite from the very beginning. And thanks to all of the folks who initially sided with Apple then later came around to the winning side, supporting app developer rights and consumer rights. https://t.co/Mw7kE7byLp
– Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 20, 2025
But Apple was recently ordered by a federal judge to halt practices that have limited competition and maintained high commissions on app sales. The latter was a reference to the 30% commission Apple takes on purchases that consumers make in iOS apps.
The ruling paved the way for Fortnite to return to the iOS App Store in the US and globally. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted that it would happen at the start of the month – the company’s Sweden developer account submitted the game to the US App Store on May 9.
But Fortnite never returned. Last week, the game’s official account said in an X post that Apple had blocked its Fortnite submission so it could not be released to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. It added that Fortnite on iOS would be offline worldwide until Apple unblocked it.
Apple’s response was that it had “asked that Epic Sweden resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies” and that “we did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.”
On May 16, Epic asked the District Judge in its case against Apple, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, to review Epic’s submission of Fortnite to the US App Store in a new court filing. Epic argued that, not for the first time, Apple was in contempt of court by ignoring the earlier ruling – Apple and its vice president of finance, Alex Roman, have been referred to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation.
– Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 19, 2025
The judge’s response was for Apple to resolve the matter on its own or for the Apple official who “is personally responsible for ensuring compliance” to appear at a hearing next week.
In a joint notice (posted by The Verge), Epic and Apple said they have “resolved all issues” from the filing related to the submission, allowing Fortnite to finally return to iOS in the United States.
In other Fortnite news, actors union SAG-AFTRA has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Llama Productions, a subsidiary of Epic Games, over the use of AI to recreate the voice of the late James Earl Jones for Darth Vader in the game.
