Fortnite thought to have generated $500 million for Epic on iOS alone in less than a year

Fortnite has reportedly grossed half a billion dollars worldwide on iOS in less than a year.

While we knew Fortnite had earned $455 million on iOS in 2018, according to new data by Sensor Tower (thanks, GI.biz), the mobile version of Epic’s battle royale sensation has now crossed the $500 million player spending mark just shy of its one-year anniversary, which is coming up on March 15. 

For context, while Fortnite took just 326 days to hit the half-billion milestone, its closest rivals Clash Royale and Tencent’s Honor of Kings took 389 and 405 days respectively.

This means Fortnite’s iOS version alone generated an average of $1.53 million per day, the overwhelming majority of which came from players in the United States. According to the stats prepared by Sensor Tower, US players accounted for 64 per cent – or $320 million – of the total.

"Speaking of percentages, we estimate that Apple has claimed approximately $150 million of this by way of its 30 per cent platform fee on in-app purchases, with the other $350 million going to Epic Games," Sensor Tower adds. "While the half a billion in gross revenue doesn’t factor in the more than $100 million we estimate Android players have spent since the game launched on that platform, Epic Games is retaining 100 per cent of that sum via its decision to bypass Google Play."

Epic Games’ earned $69 million through its fan-favourite battle royale game in just December last year, during which it was downloaded 5.2 million times. Up 52 per cent from November 2018 – and up 83 per cent on its previous strongest month – making it Fortnite’s biggest month to date.

However, it’ll be interesting to see if the release of EA’s Apex Legends – a free-to-play battle royale game set within the Titanfall universe – will affect Fortnite’s trajectory. It was released suddenly this week and made a huge impact, attracting one million unique players in the first eight hours. It’s now hit 10 million users, one million concurrent players, and is currently the most popular game on Twitch.