Apple Forces Epic Games to Resubmit Fortnite’s US App Store Request

Epic Games had to withdraw its initial submission for Fortnite to return to the App Store in the US, as Apple failed to proceed with the game’s approval for launch this week.

The Fortnite developer officially announced on May 9, 2025, via a post on X (formerly Twitter), that the game was submitted for Apple’s review, a process that usually takes about two days to proceed.

The delay in Apple’s review, combined with Fortnite’s constantly updating nature, forced Epic Games to withdraw that submission from May 9, 2025, and reapply with Fortnite’s new version planned for launch on March 16, 2025.

These events follow the announcement of Fortnite coming back to the App Store after Epic Games won its recent lawsuit against Apple and after the European Commission slapped Apple with a 500-million-euro fine for breaching its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

On May 14, 2025, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney wrote on social media, “No news from Apple yet. They’ve had it since last Friday.”

“We emailed yesterday [May 13,2025] but haven’t heard back,” Sweeney specified in another post.

In another two posts, the Epic Games boss explained why they decided to reapply, stating that they needed to release a weekly Fortnite update with new content that Friday and that all platforms had to update simultaneously. As a result, they had pulled the previous Fortnite version that had been submitted to Apple App Review the prior Friday and had submitted a new version for review. Sweeney also emphasized that their release planning depended on platforms supporting app developers like them in releasing apps. He added that a rapidly evolving multi-platform game like Fortnite could not operate if platform owners used their power or processes to obstruct.