Apple’s Cut From Fortnite’s In-App Purchases Is Mind-Blowing

With the Apple VS Epic lawsuit going on, people are naturally taking sides. Some argue that Epic deserves it because they willfully violated the rules of the App Store that they were content to follow for years. Others argue that Apple’s 30% cut from app sales and in-app purchases is simply too much and that maybe a reckoning is due.

That being said, it’s easy to see why Epic isn’t thrilled by Apple’s practices. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple’s App Store gaming business development head Michael Schmid recently took the stand to provide testimony in the case, and he revealed that Apple made an estimated $100 million from Fortnite.

Schmid declined to provide a specific amount as he felt that it would be “inappropriate”, so it is unclear if it is a higher figure or lower. Regardless, $100 million is a staggering amount of money for Apple who you might argue did “nothing”. Also, this is just from Fortnite alone, not counting other popular apps that are also giving Apple their 30% cut.

This isn’t to say Apple doesn’t deserve their cut, but it’s not difficult to see that Epic would have much preferred if they could have kept that $100 million themselves.

However, Schmid did argue that Apple did help Fortnite by spending $1 million on advertising over the course of 11 months on the App Store. At this point in time it’s hard to say which direction this case will go, but quite a few Apple executives have since been called to the stand.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gaming
Tags: Apps, epic, fortnite battle royale, iOS, Social Hit