Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has reported that Apple’s new installation process in iOS 18.6 has positively impacted its user growth. The company observed a sixty percent decrease in user drop-offs during installation.
Earlier this year, Apple began permitting users in the European Union to install alternative app marketplaces to comply with the Digital Markets Act. The initial installation process was lengthier and included multiple warning screens. These warnings alerted users to the potential dangers of installing apps from sources outside the official App Store.
Developers argued that these tactics from Apple caused many users to abandon the installation process. The European Union later fined Apple five hundred sixty-eight million dollars for not complying with the DMA rules.
In July, Apple released a revised process for installing third-party app stores with iOS 18.6. This new workflow presents users with only a single screen. This screen informs users that they might miss some features, such as subscription management offered by the App Store. It also states that the alternative app store’s developer will handle user data directly.
Epic Games shared specific data on the change. Before the iOS 18.6 update, sixty-five percent of users attempting to install the Epic Games Store abandoned the process. After the update, that figure fell to twenty-five percent. The company noted that this new drop-off rate is much closer to the rate it sees when users install its store on Windows and macOS.
Despite this improvement, Epic Games continues to criticize Apple’s policies. The company points to Apple’s core technology fee, its notarization and approval policies, and rules that make it difficult for developers to distribute apps through alternative stores.
Epic Games also repeated an argument from its previous lawsuit against Apple. The company states that Apple allows users more freedom to install apps from outside the App Store on Mac computers. During that lawsuit, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, argued that allowing the same level of freedom on iOS would lead to the platform being overrun by malware.
Apple is not the only company Epic Games is challenging. Epic is also criticizing Google for having a lengthy installation process for third-party app stores on Android. This process includes screens that warn users against installing apps from unknown sources. Epic Games claims that Google misleads users by suggesting that apps from competitors like Epic could be harmful.
Last year, a court in the United States ordered Google to open up its Play Store and allow third-party app stores. In July, Google lost its appeal against this court decision.