Chief Executive Officer Epic Gomes Tim Sweeney, in an interview with The Verge, revealed that since the Fortress Night returned to App Store in the United States on 20 May, downloads had exceeded $10 million in just two weeks, demonstrating the strong appeal of Fortress Night on the iOS platform.
Fort Night was taken down for a payment dispute with Apple in 2020, and Epic Games tried to bypass the 30 per cent policy of Apple, leading to the removal of the game from App Store for nearly five years. On 30 April 2025, the United States federal judge ruled that Apple had violated the court order to allow a third-party payment system, prompting Epic Gomes to resubmit Fortress Night to App Store, United States, on 20 May.
Tim Sweeney stated that the return of Fortress Night to iOS was “a priceless victory” and marked Epic’s key progress in a five-year legal battle with Apple. Pocketgamer reports that Fortress Night has been at the top of the American App Store free game list for 19 days since 20 May, surpassing ChatGPT as one of the most popular applications.
Epic did not disclose the exact number of new players who had returned to iOS, although the Vice-President of Ecology, Saxes Persson, indicated that the players in Fort Night were currently divided into two main groups. The first category consists mainly of PC and portable host players, and the second is hand-walking players. Tim Sweeney stated: “The current ratio of Vault Night’s mobile players is no more than 50 per cent, but all future growth will be concentrated on the mobile end.”
“We will focus on making Fort Night better on the moving side,” Saxes Persson promises: “Returning iOS means that Fort Night has become a part of everyone’s life, and the team has a sense of its performance on iOS and of where it is optimized. Now that the door is open, we can devote ourselves to it and do our best to improve the game.”
Thanks to the Court ‘ s ruling on APP Store, Fort Night, returning to ios, would provide Epic payment system options, and players would also be able to use apple in-house when purchasing V in the game. Using the Epic payment system, it is possible to obtain a return of 20 per cent provided by Epic Rewards, which could be used to purchase other content at the Epic store. Although there are many benefits, players appear to be keen on the way apples are paid. Sweeney says, “About 60 percent of players still choose apples to pay.”
Sweeney is optimistic about the prospect of Epic payments as the world moves. He noted that “the way in which Epic accounts are paid for the consumption of Fort Night on PlayStation and Xbox was not necessary, but there were hard requirements at Apple Shops. As more and more players bind payment methods to Epic accounts, we will see a higher usage rate, which I hope will exceed 50 per cent.”
In 2024, the Fortress Night was more than 200 million active users worldwide, earning $6 billion, and the iOS market contributed about 20 per cent. With respect to App Store, Epic attracted back old players through a new content cycle (e.g., time-limited activities in collaboration with Mangawe) and a synchronized cross-platform progress, while the new iOS contributed to a surge in downloads.