Apple made $360 million from 'Fortnite,' the online game that it's now battling over App Store commissions

• Apple has made roughly $360 million in revenue over the last three years from "Fortnite," the online game now fighting Apple over its App Store fees.
• Epic Games, the maker of "Fortnite," sued Apple on Thursday over its 30% commission on all in-app purchases through the App Store. Earlier this week, Apple removed "Fortnite" from the app store after Epic Games tried to skirt Apple's commission.
• Fortnite has been installed over 133 million times and seen $1.2 billion in spending worldwide on the App Store to date, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. Roughly 30% of that revenue went to Apple.
• Meanwhile, Fortnite was downloaded 11 million times and generated $10 million in spending on the Google Play store since it first debuted there in April 2020. Epic Games is involved in a similar dispute with Google, which also charges 30% commissions.

Before Epic Games sued Apple over its App Store fees, it was a cash cow for the tech giant, bringing in $360 million in revenue for Apple through its "Fortnite" app alone.

A brewing conflict between the Epic Games and Apple exploded into the public eye on Thursday, when Apple removed Epic Games' "Fortnite" from the App Store for attempting to skirt Apple's 30% commission on all in-app purchases. Epic Games responded by suing Apple, accusing it of anticompetitive behavior.

"Apple's removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100% monopoly over the iOS in-app Payment Processing Market," Epic said in its lawsuit.

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Epic Games also sued Google several hours later on Thursday for its similar enforcement of commissions on the Google Play store.

Data provided by app analytics firm Sensor Tower to Business Insider shines a light on just how much money Apple and Google were making from "Fortnite," which has hundreds of millions of players across the globe. "Fortnite" is free to download — which has contributed to its popularity — but encourages players to spend money on in-game purchases, which are subject to commissions from Apple or Google.

Since its release in 2017, "Fortnite" has been installed 133.2 million times and seen $1.2 billion in spending worldwide on the App Store alone, according to Sensor Tower. In the last 30 days, it was installed 2.4 million times and generated $43.4 million in revenue on the App Store. Apple has taken a 30% commission on "Fortnite's" App Store revenue, representing $360 million total.

Meanwhile, "Fortnite" was downloaded 11 million times and generated $10 million in spending on the Google Play store since it first debuted there in April 2020, according to Sensor Tower. Of those, 2 million installs and $3.3 million in spending came in the last 30 days. Google also imposes a 30% commission on app revenue, meaning Google made roughly $3 million from Fortnite.

Representatives for Google, Apple, and Epic Games did not immediately respond to requests for comment.