It has cost Epic Games more than $100 million to challenge Apple's App Store rules in the ongoing Apple vs. Epic Games legal battle, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said today in an interview with Business Insider.
Sweeney said that Epic Games has paid "legal bills" in excess of $100 million, but that the dispute has cost the company a lot more.
But if you look at lost revenue, that's another story. We can't predict exactly how much we would have made on iOS, but in the two years that we were on the platform, Fortnite had made about $300 million on iOS. So you could have projected hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue as a result of the fight.
Sweeney went on to say that one could "easily imagine" that the total cost to Epic Games was a billion dollars or more based on lost revenue from iOS users, and lost revenue from people who didn't play because their friends on iOS weren't able to play.
While Epic Games largely lost its court case against Apple when a judge found that Apple did not have a monopoly, Epic Games scored a win because Apple was forced to drop its anti-steering App Store policies.
As part of the Epic Games vs. Apple legal battle, Apple was given an order to allow developers to direct customers to purchase options outside of the App Store. Apple was able to put off implementing the functionality for several years, but in 2024, did so in a way that still involved fees.
Just last week, the judge overseeing the Apple vs. Epic Games legal fight said that Apple was in contempt of court for failing to properly comply with the injunction. Apple was ordered to immediately implement new U.S. App Store rules allowing developers to add links to external websites where customers can make purchases. Apple is not allowed to collect commissions for purchases made using these links, nor can it control the look of the links or buttons that developers use.
Apple is appealing the decision, but in the meantime, it's a win for developers, and a win that was funded by Epic Games. Sweeney said last week that Epic Games would be bringing Fortnite back to the iOS App Store in the U.S. as a result of the ruling, and in the interview with Business Insider, he said that Fortnite would be taking advantage of Apple's new policies "later this week."
Apple banned Epic Games' U.S. developer account, but the company has an account in Sweden that it will use to bring Fortnite back to the U.S. App Store. Sweeney said that he would be "very surprised" if Apple "decided to brave the geopolitical storm of blocking a major app from iOS." He confirmed that Epic Games has informed Apple of what its plans are, so Apple is presumably aware that Fortnite will soon be submitted to the U.S. App Store.
Later this year, Epic Games also plans to launch Epic Games Store Webshops, a feature that will let developers launch digital storefronts that are hosted by the Epic Games Store. Webshops will be free for developers making under $1 million annually per app, and for bigger developers, Epic will collect a 12 percent fee.
