A day earlier, Apple removed the Fortnite mobile application from its App Store. Google Play Store followed its footsteps and did the same later that day. But, Fortnite was not left alone as legions of gamers, Spotify, and Tinder-owner Match group came forward to support Epic games to sue Apple and Google.
A social media campaign was started by Epic games against Apple. They made a parody of Apple’s one of the most iconic commercials “1984” and released it in the game, which resulted in making the hashtag “#FreeFortnite” trending on Twitter in no time.
Gamers used social media platforms such as YouTube streaming, Tweets, Instagram, and Facebook posts to show their support and share their thoughts on the on-going situation.
Apple has said that Fortnite was removed because it violated the App Store’s guidelines by changing the payment options. Many developers have been troubled by Apple’s large commission between 15% to 30%.
Since Fortnite has an enormous fan base and young gamers, it has contributed a lot in pushing the value of Epic Games to more than $17 billion this year. Fortnite competes with one of the most widely played video games by Tencent Holdings Ltd’s known as “PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (PUBG).”
As per the analysis of SensorTower, on both, App Store and Google Play Store, Fortnite had hit 2 million downloads by July 2020. However, Apple users had spent around $34 million, whereas the Android users spent $2 million only.
