Fortnite might be coming back to iPhone in the US soon

Fortnite is probably the biggest game on the planet right now, with millions of players logging in every single day to compete for the title of battle royale champion. Historically, Fortnite has been available on just about every platform under the sun, including the Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and mobile devices, but iPhone users have had to jump through a lot of hoops in recent years after the game was removed from the App Store. Now, it looks to be making a return.

In a post on the official Fortnite X (formerly Twitter) account, developer Epic Games revealed that it had submitted Fortnite to Apple for review on the App Store in the US, after a massive legal victory for Epic Games in the European Union paved the way for its return. The post doesn’t say exactly when it’s likely to return, but Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has said it should be available “within the week.”

Fortnite was pulled from the iOS App Store and Google’s Play Store in August 2020, after it added an option directing players to buy V-Bucks, the game’s premium currency, outside of the respective mobile ecosystems. Both Apple and Google responded by removing the game, which kicked off a series of legal battles around the world, with Epic arguing that the companies’ behavior constituted unfair competition, and that developers should be able to monetize their games on mobile without paying a cut to Apple and Google.

While lawsuits in the US largely came to a standstill, cases in the European Union progressed well for Epic, with the publisher successfully arguing that third-party app stores should be allowed to exist on iOS, something that has since been allowed in the EU. Epic launched its own Epic Games Store on iOS and Android in the region last year, with the latter also available in the US, but American iPhone users have had to jump through hoops to play the game on their devices.

Epic made Fortnite available to play on iOS, macOS, and iPadOS devices via cloud streaming on Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now in 2022, but without a native app players were subject to increased latency. Now it seems like Fortnite fans on iPhones, iPads, and Macs in the US will soon be able to play the game like everybody else.