Photo by On Tuesday, Apple reinstated Epic Games’ Fortnite to the U.S. App Store, ending a five-year restriction for the first-person shooter.
While Apple hasn’t publicly commented yet, Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted, “we back fam,” hinting at Epic’s win against the tech giant.
we back fam https://t.co/X14bCXoylB
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 20, 2025
Gil Luria, Analyst at D.A. Davidson told Reuters, “For Epic Games this was a hard fought win that carried a very steep price and may be too late to boost its Fortnite game that is now past its prime.”
“For Apple this is another crack in the armor that the services business relies on — the funneling of payments through Apple in order to charge developers for every transaction,” Gil added.
Fortnite vanished from the App Store in August 2020, when Epic quietly altered the game so players could pay Epic directly instead of going through Apple’s in-app purchase system, which collects fees of up to 30%. Apple removed the game from the App Store within hours and later cancelled Epic’s developer account, triggering lawsuits that have reached the Supreme Court.
Epic has already won an important ruling: a federal judge said Apple wasn’t allowed to charge commission when an iPhone app sends customers to an external page to pay, and may not dictate whether such links look like buttons. The decision also forced Apple to let developers revise existing titles to add external payment links.
Epic responded by submitting a fresh build of Fortnite to Apple’s U.S. App Review team on May 9. The review, usually a matter of days, stretched into two weeks. On Thursday, Epic Games filed a legal challenge accusing Apple of stalling the process.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked Apple to explain why Fortnite hadn’t been approved yet or to make a decision regarding its status.
To get the green light, Fortnite still had to clear App Review, the process that checks every submission for compliance. The iPhone maker is appealing last month’s order and is seeking a pause that would allow it to restore earlier App Store rules while the case proceeds.
Spotify and Amazon moved quickly to include purchase links following Fortnite’s win
Following the ruling, both Spotify and Amazon changed their apps to accommodate purchase links. Amazon updated its Kindle iOS app so readers can once again buy e-books using the iPhone app. Spotify followed with links that take listeners to subscription offers on the web.
Because those apps were already live, they needed only to issue updates. Epic Games, on the other hand, got its account revoked. Due to this, the entire review process had to be cleared once again.
Outside the United States, Epic obtained a new developer account in Europe and now distributes Fortnite through a third-party marketplace allowed under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, which took effect last year. iPhone owners can also stream the game through cloud-gaming services. Epic says Apple still tried to cancel that European account before stepping back.
Apple argues that App Store fees are a significant slice of Apple’s revenue. This revenue is reported in Apple’s Services segment alongside advertising, AppleCare, payments, and subscriptions such as Apple TV+. Apple reported nearly $27 billion in Services revenue for the quarter ended in March.
