Fortnite returns to iOS worldwide, excluding Australia, as Epic prepares for "final battle" over App Store fees

Fortnite has returned to the iOS App Store worldwide, with Australia still excluded. Epic says the relaunch is timed around expected pressure on Apple to disclose how its fees are structured, after Apple told the US Supreme Court that regulators globally are watching this case to judge what commission it can charge in major markets outside the US.

For developers, the practical takeaway is that App Store economics are still being renegotiated territory by territory. Epic is framing this as a fight against “Apple junk fees,” and it’s explicitly tying the outcome to whether governments will allow Apple to keep charging the same way once those costs are made public. That matters if you’re shipping on mobile, because fee policy, alternative payment rules, and store access can change faster than product plans.

Australia is the exception for now. Epic says Fortnite is still blocked there because of an “illegal payment arrangement with Apple,” and it will wait for a court decision unless Apple adopts what Epic calls lawful payment terms first. Epic also says it will keep challenging Apple’s bans on alternative app stores and competing payment systems.

The broader context is that Epic has been pushing this in multiple regions: Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act, the EU’s iOS changes in September 2024, and the US ruling that Apple could not collect fees on purchases made outside the App Store. If you’re a producer or business lead, this is a useful reminder that mobile distribution strategy now needs a region-by-region legal and platform-risk view, not just a single global...