SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Epic Games on Tuesday said its hit game “Fortnite” has returned to Apple’s digital App Store after being sidelined for years due to a legal battle with the iPhone maker.

“Fortnite is back on the App Store in the US (United States) on iPhones and iPads… and on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU (European Union)!” the game maker proclaimed in a post on X.

Last week, “Fortnite” became unavailable on the App Store around the world, apparently as the result of an updated version of the game being rejected by Apple.

While Fortnite with its millions of daily players had already been unavailable to iPhone users in the United States, the block on downloads of the cartoonish multiplayer shooter affected the entire globe.

Epic put out word at the time that Fornite would be offline worldwide until Apple unblocked it.

While Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday, it said previously it had asked Epic in Sweden to resubmit its app update “without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies”.

“We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” an Apple spokesperson said.

North Carolina-based Epic has battled tech giants for years over the commissions they charge for software downloaded through their official stores on operating systems like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

These are historically the way most users install apps onto their devices.

Although it has secured wins in US courts and European Union digital regulations, Epic effectively accused Apple of slow-walking the vetting process it enforces before making an app or game available for users to download.

Epic said early in May that it had submitted “Fortnite” for review for listing in the App Store in the United States.

Fans in the European Union can usually download the game through the company’s own app store since the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect last year, requires Apple and other US tech giants to open up their platforms to competition.