In the ongoing Epic Games vs. Apple saga, Epic says in a new legal filing that Apple made incorrect statements in its own legal filing earlier this week, asserting that Apple “cherry picked” Google search results about the popularity of Epic’s Fortnite game.

Apple had suggested that Epic started the legal fight over Fortnite in the App Store as a publicity stunt, and that Fortnite had already started to decline in popularity:

“For reasons having nothing to do with Epic’s claims against Apple, Fortnite’s popularity is on the wane. By July 2020, interest in Fortnite had decreased by nearly 70% as compared to October 2019. This lawsuit (and the front-page headlines it has generated) appears to be part of a marketing campaign designed to reinvigorate interest in Fortnite.”

Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store in August over an in-app payment system, which is a violation of App Store rules. Epic won a temporary restraining order against Apple prohibiting the iPhone maker from retaliating against Epic by terminating the developer account used to support the company’s Unreal Engine. But the judge decided in the same ruling that Apple is not required to bring Fortnite back to the App Store.

In its latest filing (embedded below if you’re dying to check out the latest), Epic says Apple’s statement of declining interest in Fortnite is untrue, citing its own user engagement data. “Over the period of time that Apple cherry-picked for its Google search volume comparison (between October 2019 and July 2020), the number of daily active users on Fortnite actually increased by more than 39%,” the filing states.

Apple did not immediately return a request for comment Saturday.

A full court hearing is scheduled for September 28th.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/19/21446701/epic-apple-fortnite-lawsuit-app-store