A few days ago, Epic Games re-released Fortnite in the EU after a four-year legal battle with Apple over a 30% cut in App Store revenue. Apple announced changes to app distribution in the EU earlier this year, and Epic has finally taken advantage of them to bring Fortnite back to Apple platforms.
The steps in this tutorial require a paid Apple Developer account, which costs $99 per year. There may be other ways to install without a paid account, but we won’t cover that in today’s article.
If you have a paid Apple Developer account, it’s actually pretty easy to get started. It took me about 20 minutes, most of which was spent waiting for Fortnite to install on my iPad and then for all the assets to download.
Step 1: Find the decrypted IPA
IPA files are iOS app archives that are encrypted by default. To decrypt an IPA you typically need a jailbroken iOS device, but many people decrypt IPAs themselves and distribute them online.
We don’t plan on providing IPA files, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find. Most IPA files out there are iPad-specific, but there are some that are compatible with both iPad and iPhone.
This is due to a process called IPA trimming. Most IPAs are extracted from jailbroken iPads and are therefore only compatible with iPads. I suspect that IPAs that are compatible with both iPhones and iPads are pulled directly from Epic’s servers and then users find a way to decrypt them themselves.
Step 2: Set a custom bundle ID
This is where a paid developer account comes in handy: Log in to the developer website and go to the Account tab. Once in the Account tab, click on “Identifiers” under “Program Resources.”

After that, click on the plus button next to “Identifiers” on the new page. Register a new App ID. When asked for the type, click on “App”. After that, you will be taken to a page where you need to complete an important step.
In this page, you will fill in a description (it can be anything you like) and a bundle ID. The bundle ID is important so you need to remember it later. It can be something like “com.yourname.fortniteios”. It will also show you the features below which you need to check.

In the list of features you need to enable both “Extended Virtual Addressing” and “Increased Memory Limit”. If you don’t enable both your app may crash on launch. This is a very important step.
Once you have selected these features, click Register and you’re done! This is your final step in the Developer Portal.
Step 3: Sideload Fortnite onto your iOS device
For this step, you will need a computer to install Fortnite on your device. We will use Sideloadly because it allows you to easily change the bundle ID. Download and install Sideloadly and connect your iOS device to your computer.
Sideloadly requires you to sign in to an Apple account associated with a paid developer program, which does carry some risk, but I personally have had no issues with it. Once you’re logged in, select your device, drag the decrypted IPA onto the app, and click the “Advanced Options” button.

In the Advanced options, you need to deselect “Use Automatic Bundle ID” and change the Bundle ID to the same one you entered on Apple’s developer website. No other settings need to be changed.
After that, press start. You will have to select a team ID (if you only have one team, the option may not be visible). After that, Fortnite will begin installing. It may take a minute or two, but once it’s done, you’ll be able to open the game on your iOS device. You may need to enable Developer Mode to run it. Developer Mode can be enabled under Privacy & Security in the Settings app on your device.
It should be smooth sailing from there. I was able to run the game at 120 FPS on the 2020 12.9″ iPad Pro, which is pretty good. I’ll probably continue to play Fortnite on the PlayStation 5 for a while, but it’s good to have this option. It’s been four years since Fortnite was removed from Apple platforms.
Are you excited to run Fortnite on your iOS device? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks, exDeveloper!
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