Prime Highlights
- Fortnite is back on the U.S. App Store after nearly five years, a significant win for Epic Games in its long-running fight with Apple.
- The comeback follows a court order to force Apple to comply with previous injunctions against other payment options.
Key Facts
- Epic Games re-submitted Fortnite on May 9, 2025, and it officially returned to the U.S. App Store on May 20.
- The app also has secondary in-app purchases, paying customers a 20% cashback for those making payments through Epic’s own platform.
Key Background
The developers of the world’s most popular Fortnite computer game, Epic Games, added a direct payment feature in their app in August 2020 in a deliberate move. This avoided paying Apple’s mandatory 30% in-app purchase fee, and as a result, Apple immediately removed Fortnite from its App Store. Epic retaliated by filing a high-profile lawsuit against Apple for monopolistic and anti-competitive behavior.
The first 2021 court decision was a mix: it reaffirmed Apple’s ability to control its App Store but convicted the company of violating California’s Unfair Competition Law. In particular, Apple had come under fire for its “anti-steering” practices, which had prevented developers from letting users know about other, perhaps less expensive, ways of paying.
After several appeals, in April 2023 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court reaffirmed the lower court’s decision. Epic continued to assert that, even post-verdict, Apple still falls short. In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers made a severe rebuke which Apple had suffered due to willful neglect of the injunction. Apple was found to be charging a 27% commission over top of payments and prohibiting developers from showing payment options, which was discovered to be contrary to the court’s order.
The court granted the injunction at Apple’s request, preventing Apple from restricting app interfaces or imposing fees on non-Apple payment mechanisms. Shortly afterward, Epic submitted Fortnite for recertification to the App Store again. Apple delayed approval initially, but mounting legal pressures saw Fortnite return on May 20, 2025.
Finally back with Americans using iOS after so long, Fortnite returns with enhancements that are user-friendly in design terms—namely, the introduction of Epic’s payment processor and a 20% cashback bonus. The development is not merely a breakthrough for Epic Games but a broader shift in the dynamic between platform owners and game developers in the mobile universe.
