Tim Sweeney didn’t expect a five-year Fortnite ban

Fortnite was missing from the iOS App Store for nearly five years before returning to the US last month. Apple kicked the game off in 2020 after Epic snuck in an in-app payment mechanism that violated App Store rules at the time. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney knew that the choice would result in “fireworks,” but he initially expected the app would return quite a bit sooner. “I had actually hoped that we would get an injunction against Apple blocking Fortnite and that we’d only be off for a few weeks,” Sweeney tells The Verge. “But the court process dragged out, and we were off for five years.” Since its iOS return, Fortnite seems to be having a lot of success on the platform. As I write this, it’s the top free game in the App Store. There have been about 10 million downloads on iOS since it came back on May 20th. Sweeney and Saxs Persson, EVP of Fortnite ecosystem at Epic, wouldn’t share a specific number of net new players with the return of Fortnite on iOS, but they say that Epic generally sees two types of people coming to the title. There are the ones who play on the biggest and best device available to them at the time — like a TV at home and a phone on the go — and the ones who primarily play on their phones. Right now, primarily mobile players make up less than 50 percent of Fortnite players, Sweeney says. “All future growth of Fortnite will primarily be on mobile.” “We’re really focused on making Fortnite better on mobile,” Persson says. Being back on iOS means that it’s “part of everybody’s life” at Epic and the team has a “real-world feel” for how good the app is on iOS and what it wants to change. For example, the game isn’t “fully optimized” for touch controls in battle royale or in creator-made experiences built with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, he says. “The doors are open now, and we can actually go and every day make the game better.” Epic’s new iOS version of Fortnite also includes the option to pick from Epic’s payment system, which is now allowed thanks to a major ruling in Epic’s litigation against Apple, or Apple’s in-app purchase system when buying V-Bucks in the app. If you use its payments system, Epic offers 20 percent back in Epic Rewards, which can be used on other purchases in Fortnite or on the Epic Games Store. But more people are still using Apple’s system: roughly 60 percent of players have chosen Apple’s payment processing while 40 percent have chosen Epic’s, Sweeney says. He expects that rate will improve “over time.” He points out that Fortnite players who have made purchases on PlayStation or Xbox may not have a payment method associated with their Epic account, but Apple requires a payment method for any in-app purchases so people may already be set up there. “As we get more players to associate payment methods with their Epic accounts, we’ll see a higher rate of adoption, and I would hope that it would be above 50 percent,” he says.