Epic Games spent over $100m in legal fees in battle against Apple

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has revealed that his five-year battle against Apple’s App Store rules has cost over $100 million in legal fees.

Sweeney shared this in an interview with Peter Kafka on Business Insider, where he also acknowledged a loss in earnings caused by Fortnite’s removal from the App Store back in 2020.

He noted that during its two years on the platform, Fortnite made approximately $300 million on iOS. And though he didn’t give a precise estimate on the earnings Fortnite missed out on thereafter, lost as a result of the fight, he suggested this was in the realms of "hundreds of millions of dollars".

More broadly, the potential loss in cross-platform audience growth without iOS - caused by people choosing not to play because their Apple-using friends couldn’t - could have had an impact of "a billion dollars or more".

But Sweeney persisted that the battle has been worthwhile: "I think freedom cannot be purchased at too dear a price."

Fortnite this week?

Epic Games’ legal battle against Apple has spanned half a decade, ultimately leading to a US court ruling last week that requires Apple to allow developers to direct users to alternative payment options and inform them of better deals elsewhere. Crucially, Apple has been told it cannot demand a commission on these external purchases or use scare tactics to discourage users.

Though Apple has filed for an appeal, for now Epic appears to have won the battle on anti-steering. In this way, devs will be able to dodge Apple's 30% App Store fee by encouraging paying users to move outside the app.

"It’s 30% of revenue, so all major developers will support alternative payments," said Sweeney.

The verdict also means Apple likely won’t block Fortnite’s return to its platform, marking a return of this additional revenue stream for Epic’s battle royale giant. It’s likely that the game will return to iOS this week.

"I would be very surprised if Apple decided to brave the geopolitical storm of blocking a major app from iOS," Sweeney considered.

Following the US court's verdict, we've gathered insights from our Mavens on the significance of the ruling and the industry shift that could follow.