Fortnite's return to the Apple App Store and iOS has caused an eight-year record surge in downloads, with a spike in daily activity, too

Fortnite has faced tons of difficulties in recent times, with engagement going down and massive layoffs at Epic affecting its short-term creative potential. However, its recent return to the Apple App Store has kickstarted a surge in downloads and activity.

The legal battle with Apple over storefront taxes and payment options isn't over yet, but the raw numbers are in following Fortnite's global return to iOS devices, and they're fantastic to the point it almost neared its 2018 launch-week popularity on Apple's platform.

GamesIndustry.biz shared the data by AppMagic and compared the numbers to other key moments of Fortnite's long life. With 3.4m downloads during last week's return to the App Store, it nearly matched the launch-week figure of 3.7m, landing "its fourth-strongest week" ever. If you were wondering why Epic had been fighting Apple so hard over the game's presence on Apple devices, there's your answer.

Moreover, the global relaunch of sorts caused a sharp increase in daily activity, with installs rising by 1,408 percent, "from approximately 19,000 on May 18 to nearly 290,000 on May 19, peaking at 674,000 on May 23." For reference, the original all-time record was around 764k daily downloads when it first launched on iOS. The previous daily install peak of 569k - achieved on 24th May, 2025, after its return to iOS only in the US - was also crushed thanks to the game reaching a global audience again.

Is this enough to revitalise Fortnite in a way that satisfies Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and his team? It's too early to tell, but it won't bring back the hundreds of employees that were recently laid off. While the company's plans remain ambitious and might potentially extend beyond Fortnite, the future is looking murky at best.