Fortnite’s iOS app is still banned from Apple’s App store, but that never stopped anyone clever.
Nvidia’s cloud streaming service, GeForce Now, will reportedly work on iOS devices. The app will use a browser-based connection to circumvent some of Apple’s streaming restrictions, and Fortnite is among the games available in the service’s library.
We’ll see if that plan actually comes to fruition. Google Stadia and Microsoft’s cloud streaming services are banned from the App store outright, as are apps that let you connect to them through a browser. That said, Amazon’s Lunas streaming service works on iOS through a web browser, so there’s hope.
Even if GeForce Now does make it onto the app store and grant forlorn iPhone players a way to play Fornite on iPhone again, there will be drawbacks to playing it that way. Since you’ll be streaming the game from the cloud rather than playing it locally on the iPhone’s hardware, there’s a chance for input latency, lag, and graphical issues when playing on sub-par internet connections. You’ll also have to pay for GeForce Now’s $5 monthly subscription fee in order to play Fornite and the rest of the service’s library, but you’ll be able to play the game with touch-controls just like the native iOS app uses.
Other ways to sneak Fortnite onto your iPhone
GeForce Now hasn’t been officially confirmed for iOS yet, and no release date is set. But even if it doesn’t show up on iOS for a while (or at all), there are technically two other apps you can use to get Fortnite on your iPhone—with a few compromises.
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If you own a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One (or soon a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X), you can use either platforms’ mobile app to stream games from your console to your iPhone. In-home streaming is a free feature on PlayStation and Xbox, but you have to play Fortnite using a controller rather than touch controls since you’re streaming the console version of the game to your iPhone rather than playing the mobile version.
These are imperfect solutions, of course. Being able to play Fornite for free on your iPhone (and every other supported device) is part of the game’s appeal, and monthly fees, external hardware, and Bluetooth controllers weigh down the experience on mobile. But if you’re dead-set on playing Fornite on iPhone again, these are currently your only options.
