Fortnite was supposed to release on the App Store in the US last week, but Apple has "blocked" the battle royale's submission, and the iOS version "will be offline worldwide" until further notice

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The battle wages on

A screenshot of Fortnite's Jonesy looking serious.
(Image credit: Epic Games)

The battle royale Fortnite was supposed to be coming back to iOS devices earlier this month, but Epic claims Apple has blocked the game, making it unavailable on iPhones and iPads worldwide.

The official Fortnite account posted a statement to Twitter that reads: "Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union."

As a result, it continues, "Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it."

This all follows a lengthy legal battle between Apple and Epic Games that started in 2020. The game was first removed from the App Store following Epic offering players a way to pay directly to circumvent Apple's 30% cut on app and in-app purchases. It was also taken off of the Google Play Store for offering the same option.

A judge had ruled that Apple was allegedly "in willful violation of this Court's 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple's anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing," but that doesn't appear to have helped get the game back on the App Store.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has repeatedly called the tech company out on Twitter. He's recently been retweeting posts showing the discrepancy between how Apple originally claimed apps that used third-party payment services would look and how they actually look. At the time of writing, however, he's not tweeted anything about the game's iOS submission being blocked.

For now, Fortnite is available on Android devices through its Epic Games Store mobile app, which you can learn how to download right here.

In the meantime, check out the best Android games you can play today.

Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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