San Francisco, Sep 6 (IANS): Epic Games has made a fresh effort to get its popular Fortnite game back on App Store by filing a motion that seeks a preliminary injunction against Apple.

A US judge ruled late last month that Apple cannot delete the developer account of Epic Games that supports open and real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine but can keep the Fortnite game away from App Store for violating its policies.

Apple, however, removed the account of Epic Games from its App Store amid the ongoing legal battle with the Fortnite game developer.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Epic Games said in the motion that more than 116 million registered "Fortnite" players have accessed the game via Apple devices.

The game has a huge following of over 350 million monthly active players, and is available on multiple platforms.

"Apple is a monopolist. It controls all app distribution on iOS. It controls all in-app payment processing for digital content on iOS. It unlawfully maintains these two monopolies by explicitly prohibiting any competitive entry in either market," Epic Games said in the filing.

Epic Games argued it is "likely to suffer irreparable harm" in the absence of a preliminary injunction and that "the balance of harms tips sharply in Epic's favour."

Daily active users of the Fortnite game have plummeted more than 60 per cent on Apple iOS devices since the ban.

The Fortnite game was removed from the App Store on August 13 for adding an in-app payment system in violation of the App Store rules.

"We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store," Apple said in a statement recently.

"We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they've followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused," Apple said.