The Epic Games vs. Apple fight is one of the most important legal brawls in the tech space right now. that’s still the case even though we haven’t seen any significant developments in quite a while. The iPhone maker essentially won the first round, which means Epic’s Fortnite game is still unavailable on iOS or macOS. It might be years until Fortnite is allowed back to Apple’s app stores, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait that long to play it. In fact, any iPhone owner can play Fortnite right now for free thanks to GeForce Now.
That’s a different intermediary than you might expect. It’s not the App Store that gets you to access Fortnite on iPhone. You’ll have to stream the game with the help of Nvidia’s cloud gaming service instead.
The development isn’t new. Nvidia first made Fortnite available on iPhone via its streaming service back in mid-January. However, that was just an invite-only beta, which meant not all mobile users could get in.
Since then, we saw Microsoft launch support for Fortnite streaming via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which also supports iPhone and other devices.
But fast-forward to mid-May, and Nvidia will let any GeForce Now subscriber play Fortnite on iPhone and iPad.
Again, game streaming apps like GeForce Now will support all sorts of gadgets, not just iOS devices. The focus is on iPhone here because of the aforementioned Epic vs. Apple legal battle that’s not yet resolved. Game-streaming is the only way to play Fortnite on Apple hardware right now.
Since January, Nvidia has improved streaming Fortnite on iPhone, adding the much-needed touch controls required to play any shooter game on a touchscreen device.
How to play Fortnite on iPhone for free with GeForce Now
Fortnite is a free-to-play title since Epic makes money from in-game micro-transactions. That means iPhone and iPad users will not have to pay Nvidia to access the game.
However, game-streaming apps need subscriptions. In this case, you’ll have to get a GeForce Now subscription to make the most of Fortnite for iPhone.
Thankfully, there is a free tier for Nvidia’s cloud gaming platform, though it will only get you limited access. The free GeForce Now tier will let you play 1-hour sessions of Fortnite. The same applies to other titles.
Once you get a GeForce Now subscription, you’ll have to load the game in Safari on iPhone or iPad. That’s the only way to get Fortnite working on your iOS device.
The good news here is that you don’t have to worry about storage space on your device. And the cloud can offer better gaming quality than mobile devices due to the hardware limitations of the latter. The bad news is that you’re playing in a browser on iPhone and iPad.
If you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of GeForce Now users who beta-tested Fortnite on iPhone, you’re eligible for three free days of Priority membership. That deal is available as long as you have a Founders, Priority, or RTX 3080 membership active.
You’ll find more details about playing Fortnite on iPhone and iPad via GeForce Now streaming on Nvidia’s blog.
