Epic Games has gone to war with apple in the last few years and the IOS version of Fortnite has been taken offline as a result of the latest dispute, with the game no longer available in the App Store.
It seems that although things have been settled in court, there is still currently no resolution between Epic Games and Apple with the drama continuing this month.
Why is Fortnite unavailable on IOS?
The original dispute came from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who decided to take Apple to court for its IOS app store payments in 2021 with the hopes of bypassing a 30% fee from Apple.
Epic lost the case four years ago with the court not allowing them to skip past Apple’s fees, however in a key point from the trial the court ruled that Apple couldn’t stop iOS developers from directing users to websites outside the app that use their own payment processors.
Ever since that 2021 ruling, Sweeney has been debating that Apple has not truly lived up to its end of the bargain and this time Epic Games came out on top in court.
Not only did Apple introduce a sneaky 27% commission on all out-of-app payments without anyone knowing, but they also added scare tactics to try and put off users from purchasing outside of Apple
The court order read: “As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition. The Court enjoins Apple from implementing its new anticompetitive acts to avoid compliance with the Injunction. Effective immediately Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.”
Although Sweeney finally got a win over Apple in 2025, it felt like a lose-lose situation still with both parties unhappy with the court’s final verdict.
When will Fortnite return to IOS?
Now the dispute is settled you would expect Fortnite to be back in the App Store, however there is still no sign of the game making its return with the bad blood continuing.
Tim Sweeney teased fans on his X account at the beginning of May saying that the game would be making its return to IOS within the week, but he hasn’t been able to live up to that promise.
The Epic Games CEO isn’t the one to blame here though, as Apple’s pettiness has been on display yet again since the latest court hearing.
Apple reportedly ignored Fortnite’s application to return to the App Store for over five days and the follow up from Epic was again blocked, with the IOS version of the game now offline worldwide – possibly indefinitely.
Fortnite’s official X account announced: “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.”
Despite Fortnite delaying its Star Wars update this week in the hopes of returning to the App Store before launch, it seems that Apple is standing firm on its decision to not allow the game back any time soon.
