This archive report was first published on 18 August 2020.
Fortnite, the popular battle royale game, has been at the center of a long-standing feud with Google over revenue sharing and in-app payments. The game's developer, Epic Games, has consistently pushed against Google's 30% cut from developers' earnings.
Initially, Epic Games withheld Fortnite from the Google Play Store, instead offering it through its own website and Samsung's Galaxy Apps Store. However, in April this year, Fortnite was finally made available on the Google Play Store.
But just four months later, Google delisted Fortnite from the Play Store, citing the game's developers' decision to implement their own in-app payments system, which bypasses Google's and denies it the 30% cut.
According to Google's policy center, developers must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment for products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content.
Fortnite's fate is not unique to the Google Play Store; the game has also been kicked off Apple's App Store. However, unlike on Apple's platform, Android developers have the liberty to make their apps available on third-party app stores and repositories, bypassing the Google Play Store.
Epic Games has exploited this loophole to distribute Fortnite through its website, which remains the primary place for Android users to download the game and get the latest updates.
For Samsung device users, access to the Samsung Galaxy Apps Store is guaranteed, and from there, the Fortnite installer can be downloaded, with the rest of the required game data fetched from Fortnite's own servers.
Even though Epic Games has limited Fortnite's availability on other popular third-party app stores, it can still be found at APKPure, where it can be downloaded and installed.
