The number of Fornite players on an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch has fallen 60 percent since Apple removed the game from the App Store. That is stated in court documents filed by studio Epic Games.
In the player drop, the developer looked at gamers who are active on a daily basis. The figure illustrates how many people can no longer play the game: 63 percent of iOS players play exclusively on an Apple device, according to Epic Games.
Until its removal, the game would have been downloaded by 116 million people, who collectively played 2.86 billion hours. It is unclear how many of these were still actively playing.
The game was cleared after the company violated Apple’s rules. The tech giant wants app makers to run all payments through Apple’s platform, but Epic Games added its own payment method.
Quarrel with Apple
Epic Game is critical of the way Apple makes money. Since all payments are through the company, the company would allocate up to 30 percent of all sales. The game studio thinks this is too high and states that alternatives must exist.
By putting its own payment method in the game, Epic Games wanted to provoke a legal dispute. Shortly after the game was cleared, the company filed multiple lawsuits. A satirical video was also played in Fortnite in which Apple was criticized.
Interim injunction
Epic Games is now trying to challenge two points with summary proceedings. First, the studio wants Fortnite to be allowed back into the App Store until the judge has ruled. In addition, the company wants to prevent games made by other developers with Epics software from being removed.
The two companies were recently brought to court on the same point, which resulted in a judgment that is only valid for a few weeks. In addition, the judge said that the game may be left out of the App Store, but the other games cannot be duped.
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