Epic prepares for Fortnite’s iOS App Store return by boosting its Epic Rewards to 20%

Epic Games is preparing for the apparent return of Fortnite to the iOS App Store by making permanent changes to its Epic Rewards scheme.

Originally introduced in May 2023, Epic Rewards lets players earn 5% back in Rewards any time they make a purchase on the Epic Games Store.

Following its announcement that it had resubmitted Fortnite to Apple for inclusion in the iOS App Store, however, the publisher has announced a new incentive to encourage players to buy directly from Epic instead of through Apple’s own payment system.

Starting immediately, any purchases made through Epic’s payment system (including those released by third parties and sold on the Epic Games Store) will give the player 20% in Epic Rewards instead of 5%.

This deal is permanent for Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys – “These 20% rewards in Epic’s games are here to stay”, the company says – but will expire on August 31 for all other purchases on the Epic Games Store.

This means if players were to buy Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Deluxe Edition for $59.99 from the Epic Games Store, they will get back around $12 in Epic Rewards, to go towards a future purchase.

You now get 20% back in Epic Rewards when you make a purchase in Fortnite on PC, iOS, Android, and the web using Epic’s payment systems! https://t.co/mSmxnVQJlM

— Fortnite (@Fortnite) May 9, 2025

This applies to subscriptions too, meaning if players subscribe to the $11.99 / £9.99 monthly Fortnite Crew subscription directly via Epic’s payment system on PC, iOS, Android or the web (rather than via the payment systems offered by Apple, Google, Sony or Microsoft on their own devices), they will get $2.40 / £2.00 back in Epic Rewards every month.

It also applies to add-ons and microtransactions, meaning if – for example – a player was to buy 13,500 V-Bucks from Epic directly, they’ll theoretically get enough Epic Rewards back to buy two more 1,000 V-Bucks bundles.

The permanent 20% rise for Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys appears to be directly aimed at Apple, following a US judge’s recent order that Apple had to remove its restrictions around alternate payment methods.

Apple had previously been sued by Epic in 2020 for taking a 30% cut on all in-app purchases while also banning any alternative ways of making payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem.

Epic moved to circumvent Apple’s platform fees with a new direct payment option in Fortnite, leading to the game’s removal from the App Store and the termination of Epic’s developer account, but Apple was then ordered in 2021 to allow iOS developers to link to external payment options in their apps.

Apple started allowing developers to offer external payment options, but also forced a 27% commission on purchases made through web links in apps, and showed prompts dissuading users from using the web link purchases, which last week was judged to have been a violation of the injunction.

Following the court’s decision last week, Epic stated that it had submitted Fortnite to Apple for review, in the hope of bringing the game back to the App Store in the US.