Fortnite Made Epic Over $9 Billion by 2019, Documents in Apple Court Case Reveal

Fortnite has a free-to-play battel royale game mode that is the most popular of the three modes.

By Vineet Washington | Updated: 4 May 2021 16:46 IST

Fortnite Made Epic Over $9 Billion by 2019, Documents in Apple Court Case Reveal

Fortnite’s battle royale mode was launched on iOS in 2018

Highlights

Fortnite has been developed and published by Epic Games
The game brought in over $5.4 billion in its first year
Epic sued Apple for its App Store practices

Fortnite was released in 2018 and the game made over $9 billion, or over Rs. 66,448 crore in its first two years, according to Epic's financial documents as revealed in its court case against Apple. Epic and Apple are currently in a court battle over App Store practices and regulations. As part of the court battle, new financial documents have been made public that show along with revenue generated by Fortnite that Epic was predicted to bring in gross revenue of $3.5 billion (roughly Rs. 25,855 crores) in 2020, but it reportedly made over $5 billion (roughly Rs. 36,898 crores).

Epic had filed a court case against Apple for the latter's App Store policies requiring developers to give up to a 30 percent cut to the Cupertino giant. Now, new financial documents from Epic have surfaced in court as reported by The Verge, and these reveal the developer and digital game store's earnings from 2018 and 2019. Epic's biggest asset – Fortnite – brought in over $5.4 billion (roughly Rs. 39,900 crore) in its first year (2018) and over $3.7 billion (roughly Rs. 27,340 crore) in the next year taking the total to over $9 billion (roughly Rs. 66,448 crores). Its other games brought in $8 million (roughly Rs. 59 crores) in 2018 and $100 million (roughly Rs. 738 crores) in 2019.

Fortnite is Epic's biggest property which can be clearly seen in the financial documents. It includes a free-to-play battle royale game mode that is the most popular among the three modes. It offers a host of cosmetic in-app purchases such as character and weapon skins, glider skins, and more. Epic's development engine brought in $124 million (roughly Rs. 915 crores) in 2018 and $97 million (roughly Rs. 716 crores) in 2019. The Epic Games Store brought in $2 million (roughly Rs. 14.76 crores) in 2018 and saw significant growth in 2019 bringing in $233 million (roughly Rs. 1,720 crores).

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Epic's gross revenue in 2018 was $5.6 billion (roughly Rs. 41,343 crores) which reduced by 25 percent in 2019 to $4.2 billion (roughly Rs. 31,007 crores). As per the prediction for 2020 in the document, Epic was said to bring in $3.5 billion. However, a tweet by a New York Times writer reporting about the Epic vs. Apple case cites Tim Sweeney, Epic's CEO, claiming the company made $5.1 billion (roughly Rs. 37,674 crores) in revenue in 2020.

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As for Fortnite on the App Store, the game released on iOS in 2018 and earned around $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,387 crores) of which 30 percent had to be paid to Apple, according to the New York Times writer. The game was removed from the App Store in August 2020 for introducing its own billing system, and at the time, there are no signs of it returning. In November last year, Apple reduced the App Store commission rate to 15 percent for developers who earn up to $1 million (roughly Rs. 7.38 crores) in annual sales per year from all their apps.

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