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Free games giant Fortnite made an estimated $ 4.3 billion in its first two years on the market, with mobile devices playing a big role. Epic is losing a lot of cash every week that Fortnite is off iOS.
As the Epic vs Apple legal battle progresses, I thought it important to take a look at Fortnite’s earnings to give more perspective on how much this hit is costing Epic. According to analyst firm SuperData, Fortnite has raised approximately $ 4.3 billion in microtransaction revenue across all platforms since its launch in October 2017 through December 2019.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
It’s worth noting that mobile devices didn’t have a material impact on Fortnite’s earnings until late 2018, which helped contribute to Epic’s meteoric $ 3 billion operating profit throughout 2018.
Fortnite launched first on iOS in April 2018 and then on Android in August 2018.
In May 2020, Fortnite has made more than $ 1 billion in profit from microtransactions on mobile devices. Epic said that most of this revenue comes from iOS users.
“The average iOS Fortnite user spends significantly more on in-app purchases than the average Android Fortnite user.” Epic said in his court case against Apple alleging monopoly and antitrust practices.
“IOS users are therefore a ‘must have’ market for app developers to compete; an app developer who chooses to develop apps for Android but not iOS forgoes the opportunity to reach more than 1 billion high-paying app users. “
By Epic’s own admission, the Fortnite creator is losing untold millions every week that he stays out of the iOS store.
Epic recently launched a preliminary injunction requesting that the courts force Apple to accept Fortnite again on iOS, as well as processing payments in the Epic app. In short, Epic wants the courts to force Apple to A) put Fortnite back on iOS and B) allow a separate payment system that takes away 30% of Apple’s revenue.
“Epic was willing to take on Apple because it was the right thing to do and because Epic believed it was better positioned than many other companies to weather the storm. But Epic is not immune from irreparable damage.”Epic said.
Epic hasn’t described how much money it’s losing (or losing) since Fortnite retired on August 13, but based on the billions it made in 12 months, I’d say they’ve lost millions so far.
