Fortnite now available to everyone on iOS via GeForce Now cloud streaming

After four months in closed beta, a touchscreen-optimized version of Fortnite is now available to stream via Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service on iOS and Android. It means that iPhone users have another solution to play one of the most popular games in the world after it was unceremoniously booted from the App Store in August 2020 to bypass Apple’s in-app payment system. On iOS, GeForce Now is available through the browser, while Android owners can access it through an app.

The official launch follows a months-long beta period in which Nvidia says 500,000 people have streamed more than 4 million sessions of Fortnite through the service. As a result of the tests, Nvidia claims it has been able to optimize its “on-screen touch controls and game menus”. Hopefully, the changes will address a control scheme that my colleague Jay Peters called “picky” in January.

Fortnite‘s on-screen control interface.

Image: Fortnite

iOS users have the most to gain from this touch-optimized version of Fortnite coming to GeForce Now as Android users can still install the game natively via sideloading. The PC version of Fortnite has was previously available to stream on Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, which is also available on Windows, macOS, Android TV, select LG TVs, and through browsers including Chrome and Edge. That being said, Fortnite is already available on most of this hardware, so it may be easier to play the free-to-play game natively in many cases.

This touch-optimized version of Fortnite on GeForce Now took a long time with Epic and Nvidia announcing their intention to stream the game to iOS in November 2020. Since then, the game has actually been released on Microsoft’s rival Xbox Cloud Gaming service, where it launched earlier this month. Like GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming is only available on iOS via web browsers due to Apple’s restrictions on game streaming services.

As part of today’s announcement, Nvidia says it’s offering beta testers three free days of Priority membership to GeForce Now, the mid-level tier that normally costs $8.99 per month. It can be redeemed at redeem.nvidia.com, but you’ll need to subscribe to the service’s most expensive $19.99/month RTX 3080 tier to stream Fortnite at 120 fps on compatible Android devices.

Nvidia claims its cloud gaming service now includes a library of 1,300 games available through a combination of Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Update May 19, 9:58 AM ET: Updated to note that the PC version of Fortnite was previously available to stream via GeForce Now.

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