Earlier this week, Apple finally approved Fortnite’s return to the App Store for iPhone and iPad, but only in the United States.
Fortnite returning to the App Store ends a standoff that began in 2020 when Epic Games added a direct payment option to avoid Apple’s 30% fee. That move got the game pulled from the App Store and sparked a high-profile legal battle.
Epic accused Apple of holding a monopoly over iOS app payments and launched a viral campaign comparing Apple to Big Brother. A California court recently ruled that Apple broke a 2021 injunction by restricting alternative payment methods—similar to findings under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, which cleared the way for Fortnite’s return in Europe earlier this year.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called it the end of Apple’s “junk fees.” Fortnite was gone for exactly 4 years, 4 months, and 17 days.
What if you want to download Fortnite for iPhone and iPad in Canada and outside the U.S.? The only way to do that is if you have a US Apple Account.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to download Fortnite for iOS in Canada and beyond…(for education purposes only of course)
Step 1: Sign out of your current Apple ID on your iPhone: Settings > Your Name > Sign Out
Step 2: Go to account.apple.com and create a new Apple ID:
We were not asked to input any payment details unlike the process from 16 years ago, when the Canadian App Store basically sucked compared to the United States.
Step 3: Sign in with the new US Apple ID in the App Store on your iPhone or iPad. Just head to Settings, tap your profile picture under your Apple Account, scroll all the way to the bottom and click “Sign Out”. You will be asked to enter your password to turn off Find My.
If you’re performing this on a secondary device and signing out and signing back in, then repeating it on your main device, Apple may lock your account for suspicious activity, which happened to us. We had to unlock our Apple ID using other Apple devices and change our password. This may not occur for everyone, but it’s something to keep in mind. So try this when you have your secondary devices nearby to ensure you have access to your Apple ID for two-step authentication requests.
Step 4: Search for and download Fortnite in the App Store. You’ll see Epic Games is even advertising in the App Store to push the real Fortnite ahead of imposters. Fortnite is the #1 download in the Action category right now.
After Fortnite downloads and you open it for the first time, the game will download more files in the background and that can take up anywhere from 10 to 13GB depending on your device. You will require a device that has at least 4GB of RAM to play Fortnite. This means an iPhone XS or newer and iPad 10 or newer, iPad Air 4 or newer, iPad mini 6 or newer, iPad Pro or newer.
You can close Fortnite and the game will continue to download in the background. Once it nears completion the game will ask you to keep it open to finish the install process.
Touch controls on Fortnite for iPhone and iPad are not bad, with kiddos able to easily master them and achieve a Victory Royale on their first try in our household (we suck at the damn game with our fat and slow fingers):
Now that you have Fortnite downloaded on your iPhone or iPad, you can sign out of your US Apple Account, and then sign back in with your Canadian Apple Account. Yes, Fortnite will remain on your device and you can play it as normal while in Canada and beyond.
Let us know how you’re liking Fortnite for iPhone and iPad again in the comments below.
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Also worth noting is that U.S.-installed apps (well, any apps from a non-Canadian App Store) will update like usually when you check for app updates. Occasionally you may have to enter your password, but not every time. You won’t have to log out and log in to the U.S. account to check for and update.
Cannot use my Canadian cell # to create US apple account, it keeps saying enter valid phone number