[GameSpot] - Epic: Fortnite's Biggest Platform For Growth Is Mobile

[343iBot]

The Epic vs. Apple trial continues to unfold in its second week, and one of the first witnesses of week two was Epic's marketing director, Matthew Weissinger. He testified on Monday about a range of topics, one of which was that he believes Fortnite is maxed out on console when it comes to its potential audience; mobile is the biggest platform for growth, he said.

"We've reached basically full penetration on console, and mobile offers the biggest growth opportunity... Everybody has a mobile device and they have it with them all the time. Not everybody has a console and not everybody has a gaming PC," he said, as reported by GI.biz.

Weissinger went on to say that Fortnite's playerbase on iOS, before it was removed from the App Store, was about 2.5 million daily active users. He said this made up only around 10% of Fortnite's total number of daily active users across platforms.

Weissinger also testified that Epic is "absolutely" hurt from Fortnite's removal from the App Store. "Yes, absolutely... in a number of ways," he said. The marketing boss said people who only played Fortnite on an iOS device have now "disappeared." He also remarked that for people who have an iPhone and a console or PC now have one fewer place to play Fortnite when they're on a commute or in a different social situation. Weissinger also said Fortnite players on iOS have suffered from "severed friend connections [and] social connections" due to Fortnite's removal from the App Store.

Apple yanked Fortnite from the App Store after Epic started offering a direct payment system inside the game that cut out Apple from the revenue-sharing agreement. Apple said this was a violation of the App Store terms.

Previously uncovered documents in the case revealed that Fortnite makes almost half of its money from PS4. Some were surprised to see how low mobile ranked in terms of revenue.

The Epic vs. Apple case is now in its second of three weeks of testimony, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more. You can also catch up on all the major developments in GameSpot's roundup of all the big Epic vs. Apple court case news.

The court case hasn't been all completely serious; one lighthearted moment came on Monday when Epic's lawyer talked about and showed a naked picture of Peely in the courtroom. You can see how this scene unfolded from reporter Adi Robertson below.

Epic lawyer: "There might have been an implication that showing Peely without a suit might have been inappropriate. [Lawyer shows a picture of naked Peely in court.] "Is there anything inappropriate about Peely without clothes?”
Weissinger: “It’s just a banana, ma’am."

— Adi Robertson (@thedextriarchy) May 10, 2021

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