Fortnite earned almost half a billion dollars last year on iOS alone

Fortnite has reportedly earned $455 million on iOS in 2018, earning Epic roughly $1.6 million every day since it launched on the Apple store in March 2018.

According to Sensor Tower (via GameSpot), Epic Games’ earned $69 million through its fan-favourite battle royale game in just December, 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.

Given Android players have to download it directly via Epic, the true mobile earnings are likely to be significantly higher still. Including December’s figures, this means Fortnite has reached 82.6 million all-time downloads on Apple’s platform alone.

Fortnite’s main competitor, Tencent’s PUBG Mobile, brought in $100 million worldwide on iOS in 2018 – just 22 per cent of Fortnite’s total for the year.

The battle royale has also been a big earner for its streamers, too. Top Fortnite streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins earned almost $10 million last year, attributing 70 per cent of that revenue to Twitch and YouTube, and the other 30 per cent to revenue made via ads, subscriptions, and sponsorships deals with Samsung, Uber Eats and Red Bull.

It’s not all rosy for Epic, though; for several months now, the artists behind some of Fortnite’s most iconic moves have been calling on developer Epic to compensate them or "put the actual rap songs behind the dances that make so much money as Emotes". Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro is suing Epic and 2K Games for using a signature dance he made famous without consent, and rapper 2 Milly recently filed a similar suit against Epic Games for replicating and selling his dance moves.