May 20 (Reuters) - Epic Games' wildly popular

multiplayer shooter game "Fortnite" was available again on

Apple's ( AAPL ) app store in the U.S. on Tuesday, capping a ban

of nearly five years and marking a major win for the video

company.

The video game title was also available on the Epic Games

Store and AltStore in the European Union, Fortnite said in a

post on social media platform X.

Apple ( AAPL ) had banned Fortnite from its store in 2020, and while

the iPhone maker allowed the game back last year in the European

Union following pressure from authorities, the app store on

iPhones and iPads in the U.S. still did not carry the game.

Fortnite launched in 2017 and became an instant hit, drawing

millions of players around the world thanks to its

last-player-standing, "battle royale" format. At the time of the

ban, Epic had 116 million users just on Apple's ( AAPL ) platform.