Fortnite’s removal from the App Store and Google Play has left a huge opening in the market according to Sensor Tower.
Epic Games’ battle royale title had generated around $1.2 billion on the App Store alone, having hit the $1 billion milestone in May 2020. Meanwhile, on the Android storefront, the game made around $9.7 million following its April 2020 release; Epic had been reluctant to bring Fortnite to Google Play.
This year alone, Fortnite generated approximately $293 million in revenue, of which $283 million was made via iOS devices. Furthermore, it accumulated 31 million downloads in 2020, 20 million came from the App Store, whilst the other 11 million were generated on Android. However, across its two years on mobile, the battle royale racked up around 133 million installs on Apple’s storefront.
Lost battle
The reason for Fortnite’s removal from both the App Store and Google Play was Epic’s choice to add a new payment option, one that prevented the tech giants from taking their 30 per cent commission. Players that had already downloaded the game still have access. However, they will only have access to that version, with no updates available.
There is no doubt that the loss of Fortnite on the App Store and Google Play opens up the market, although Epic’ title was never at the top of the battle royale food chain, PUBG Mobile firmly holds that position. Earlier this year, Tencent’s game not only broke 600 million downloads, but it also cracked $3 billion in lifetime revenue, though that has since risen to almost $3.5 billion.
Up until its removal on August 13th, Fortnite was the fourth top-grossing battle royale game on mobile, coming in behind Knives out, Garena Free Fire and PUNG Mobile. However, in the US, Epic’s game is the top choice, at least until its ban from the App Store and Google Play. From January 1st to August 13th, Fortnite grossed $181 million in the US, with PUBG and Call of Duty in second and third place with $156 million and $111 million respectively.
