Nearly five years after Apple unceremoniously kicked Fortnite off the App Store, the immensely popular battle royale shooter is back on iPhones and iPads.
To say that this has been a long time coming would be a severe understatement. Back in 2020, Fortnite developer Epic Games introduced its own in-app payment system for the game in order to bypass Apple’s 30% commission on apps and in-app purchases. Epic Games knew the move would draw ire, and Apple, promptly removed the game from its storefront.
Following a protracted, headline-generating legal battle, Epic got a big win late last month when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers ruled that Apple had been in “willful violation” of her 2021 order and would therefore no longer be able to impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app.”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to social media to celebrate, saying: “Apple’s 15-30% junk fees are now just as dead here in the United States of America as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. Unlawful here, unlawful there.”
There was one more hurdle to overcome, as Apple continued to block the app from appearing on the App Store in the days following Sweeney’s proclamation. That didn’t last long, as Judge Rogers wrote in an order on Monday that “Apple is fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing.”
Apple seemingly took the hint, as Fortnite popped up a day after the order.
In the new version of Fortnite available from the App Store, there is now an option to choose between buying V-Bucks as an in-app purchase or from the Epic Games Store. If you choose Epic’s store, you’ll earn 20% of your purchase back in Epic Rewards.
You can download Fortnite from the App Store in the US right now.
