Best daily deals

Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.

Apple earned $360 million from Fortnite before pulling the plug

Google is also losing a significant (but substantially smaller) amount.
By
August 14, 2020
FortNite Mobile video screenshot Apps Weekly
TL;DR
  • Apple is estimated to have made $360 million from Fortnite before it pulled the game from the App Store.
  • There’s been $1.2 billion in spending on the game over that period.
  • Google, meanwhile, has earned $10 million from the Play Store version of the shooter.

You knew Apple was giving up a big source of revenue when it pulled Fortnite from the App Store in its pricing row with Epic Games. However, it’s now clearer just how much the tech giant stands to lose.

Business Insider has obtained SensorTower estimates indicating that Apple has made roughly $360 million in revenue from Fortnite since the battle royale shooter reached iOS. Players have spent about $1.2 billion in total on passes and V-Bucks in the otherwise free-to-play game, and people have downloaded it 133.2 million times.

The title produced $43.4 million in total revenue and 2.4 million installs just in the past 30 days, SensorTower added.

Read more: How to install Fortnite for Android

Google’s revenue was considerably smaller before it removed Fortnite from the Play Store. That’s not surprising, though, since Fortnite only launched on the store in April 2020. The Play Store version has generated $10 million of total spending to date with 11 million downloads, according to estimates. About $3.3 million and 2 million installs came within the past 30 days.

Apple and Google aren’t making the decisions to pull the game lightly, in other words. Their 30% cut each gave them a lot of money, and they stand to lose a lot if they don’t reach a deal. They’ll make considerably less if they lower their share to please Epic, however.

This simultaneously illustrates the size of Epic’s gamble. While it can still count on revenue from non-Play Store Android downloads, computer users, and console gamers, it’s still risking a significant amount of income by giving up many of its mobile sales. If this move doesn’t pay off, Epic might not have much choice but to come back if it wants to keep making the massive profits it has enjoyed so far.