Epic Games has alleged that Apple is preventing its highly popular game, Fortnite, from being available on both the U.S. and EU App Stores. This claim follows a significant legal victory for Epic Games, where the company successfully compelled Apple to allow external payment options in its U.S. App Store, eliminating the commission fees that the tech giant typically charges.
On May 9, 2025, Epic Games attempted to resubmit Fortnite to the U.S. App Store. However, the submission was not accepted by Apple for a week, prompting Epic Games to withdraw its request and initiate the submission process again. According to Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, this resubmission was crucial because the company is required to release weekly updates for Fortnite, which include new content that must be synchronized across all gaming platforms.
Subsequently, Epic Games submitted a new version of Fortnite to the U.S. App Store on May 14, complete with the latest content updates. Unfortunately, in a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday morning, Fortnite announced that Apple has blocked this latest submission. The post indicated that this blockage has also prevented Epic Games from releasing Fortnite in the European Union, stating, “Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.”
TechCrunch has reached out to both Epic Games and Apple for additional information regarding this situation and will provide updates as more details become available. This ongoing conflict has raised concerns about the future of Fortnite on Apple devices and has sparked a larger conversation about the power dynamics between app developers and major tech companies.
