6 Years Later, Fortnite Is Back on iPhones Worldwide

It started in August 2020 with a direct payment button, a swift App Store ban, and a lawsuit. Six years later, Fortnite is back on iPhones in nearly every country on Earth.

Epic Games confirmed the global return today, restoring Fortnite to Apple's App Store as the two companies barrel toward what CEO Tim Sweeney called "the final battle of Epic v Apple in court." The game had already returned in the US and Europe last year following a court ruling against Apple, but today's rollout covers the rest of the world, with one exception: Australia, where Epic says Apple is still enforcing terms a court already found unlawful.

Sweeney framed the move around a specific quote from Apple's own Supreme Court filing: "Regulators around the world are watching this case to determine what commission rate Apple may charge on covered purchases in huge markets outside the United States." Epic's read on that is blunt. "We see this as the beginning of the end of the Apple Tax worldwide," Sweeney wrote. The blog post goes further, stating Epic is "confident that once Apple is forced to show its costs, governments around the world will not allow Apple junk fees to stand." Whether or not you agree with Sweeney's framing, I think he's earned the right to take a victory lap here. Getting a game this size banned from iOS for six years and still pushing the fight to the Supreme Court takes conviction that most publishers wouldn't stomach.

The timing is complicated, though. Epic laid off over 1,000 employees in March, with Sweeney partially blaming a downturn in Fortnite engagement. The company also raised V-Bucks prices earlier this month, citing rising operational costs. According to Statista, Epic generated $6.21 billion in gross revenue last year, but the legal war with Apple has been expensive and Fortnite's player numbers have slipped. Getting back on hundreds of millions of iPhones globally isn't just a principled stand anymore; it's a business necessity.

In Australia, Epic says it won its case but can't return "under an illegal payment arrangement with Apple" and is waiting on a court decision to force compliance. Fortnite returned to the Google Play Store back in March.