Ever since Fortnite for Android launched in 2018, you've had to go outside the Play Store to get it on your phone. That's changing today.
Fortnite is now available for download through Google's Play Store. When the app first launched, developer Epic Games said it was skipping the Play Store because it didn't want to pay Google the 30% cut it would ask for in-app purchases made in the game, but today Epic says that it's changing its mind because apps offered outside the Play Store are at a "disadvantage".
Epic explained this decision in a statement to Polygon:
"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."
Epic does say that it will continue to maintain the Epic Games App and Fortnite outside of the Play Store.
While Epic doesn't seem super pleased about putting Fortnite in the Play Store, it could lead to more people discovering the game and playing it on their Android devices. Lots of folks only download apps from the Play Store that's included on their phone for various reasons, such as security or their technical ability, and now Fortnite is readily available for download through Google's Play Store on Android users' phones.