When Fortnite came to the Android universe, it tagged along with some controversy. Developer Epic Games did not want to part with its earnings to Google and hence, did not make the game available on Play Store. Instead, players had to visit their website, download an installer app, and eventually begin downloading the game. Not only this was a tedious process but it also poses several challenges for Epic Games too. Hence, Epic Games finally gave in and (cue the Bond music), Fortnite is now live on the Play Store.
Fortnite has gone live on the Google Play Store and you can download it right away, similar to how you can install any other game. The APK file is close to a 100MB and once that’s installed, it will ask you to download the rest of the package. Players won’t have to deal with any additional apps like before. Epic Games will also release all the app updates via the PlayStore, which is more streamlined and convenient than before.
When asked why Epic Games made this move after waiting for 18 months, it blamed it on Google. “After 18 months of operating Fortnite on Android outside of the Google Play Store, we’ve come to a basic realization. Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third-party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store,” says Epic Games.
Hence, in order to make it easy for them, Epic Games has given in to the whims of Google, which it has been protesting for years. This means that Epic Games will have to part with 30 percent of their earnings with Google.
Rival PUBG MOBILE has been available on Google Play right from the beginning and it has a bigger foothold in the Android universe. Epic’s move comes at a time when the demand for battle royale game is slowly reducing. Additionally, there’s now another rival in the form of Call of Duty Mobile from Activision, which has also eaten up into PUBG MOBILE’s share of the market.
Fortnite is available for all those phones that can support its minimum specifications requirements. If you have a flagship-grade Android phone relying on Snapdragon 845 and newer, or Samsung’s Exynos 8895 and newer, you can play the game easily. I tried downloading Fortnite on a Redmi Note 9 Pro and it is installing. Hence, most of you can play the game on modern midrange phones using Snapdragon 700 series chips.