As of May 20,2025 Fortnite has made an official return to the US IOS App Store worldwide following the public back and forth between Epic Games and Apple. There is no secret that Epic and Apple have been at odds for the past half decade. It was August 2020 when the game publisher pulled the massively popular Battle Royale from the IOS App Store in taking a stand against Apple commissions in App purchases.
Well, after a lengthy legal process, it was only on May 1, 2025, that Epic won out . Apple was ordered to stop imposing commissions on in-app purchases via web links. Though there are public scuffle did not stop when the judge hammer fell.
Fortnite would have made it to the App Store within a week, but Apple review process saw that it did not happen. After even more back and forth in the public eye, Peace has come. Fortnite is indeed once again available on the App Store in US.
Fortnite Finally Returns on IOS App Store in the US
At the tail of the court proceeding, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers found that Apple had outright lied under oath. As there are companies which was not only ordered to forego their commission in app purchases across the board, but Apple was even considered for criminal contempt.
Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said on X that Apple’s 15 to 30% junk fees are now just dead here in the US, same as in Europe.
Although Apple’s review process claims 90% of submissions are reviewed within 24 hours. Well, that was not the case for Epic’s new submission of Fortnite. Well, 120 hrs have passed before Epic was informed the submission had actually been blocked.
Official Fortnite shared a post on social media saying they cannot release Fortnite on the US App Store or on the Epic Games for IOS in the European Union. Fortnite will be offline on IOS until Apple unblocks it.
Well Apple fired back as clammimg Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update without including the US storefront which to impact Fortnite in other geographies.
On May 19,2025, the judge said the filing that Apple is fully capable of resolving the issue without further briefing or else hearing it. This should not have been the case well whoever Apple has responsible for ensuring compliance would have been asked to attend another court hearing.
Well we can say it worked out as Fortnite has indeed passed its resubmissioin and now available on the US IOS App Store again.
Read More: Apple Responds Regarding Fortnite removal from App Store