Fortnite is a super popular game today all over the world. Epic Games developed Fortnite and since the mobile version launch around two years ago has earned over $1 billion in those two years alone. While Fortnite has been available on several different platforms, it has just become available in Google Play.
At First, Epic Games Only Released Fortnite on Consoles, iOS, and Android
For a large part of Fortnite’s history, you were able to download and play the game on consoles and on the iOS store. You could also play Fortnite on Android: there was a variety of ways to enjoy Fortnite on Android devices because Android is a large platform on many phones. One way to download the game was to use the Galaxy Store app, which is found on Samsung devices. However, other Android users could enjoy the game on Android devices by downloading the game directly from Epic Games and follow the directions provided.
Why Fortnite Was Not Released on Google Play
The reason that the popular game had not been available for Google Play was, Google wanted a 30 percent share of the revenue earned from the game. Epic games instead, decided to put the game on third-party software. However, Google put the third-part software at a disadvantage because it warned users that there could be security issues. This caused Epic Games to rescind that decision.
The After-Effect Of Fortnite’s Release on Google Play
Today you can download the game on Google Play, and Google will receive 30 percent of the revenues earned from in-app purchases. According to Apptica, in the first month on Google play, Fortnite earned over $500,000 just from Google Play and was able to bring in around $3.5 million of installs. However, this could be considered a disappointing result because, in the month of April, Fortnite earned over $30 million from the iOS version. This large revenue was due to the pandemic and people spending more time at home in April. However, this had lead to questions about whether it was a good business decision to ignore the Google Play store, especially when considering that Fortnite seems to lost much revenue at last summer’s Fortnite World Cup.
Would Fortnite Have Seen More Success if They Released on Google Play Sooner?
During the last summer’s Fortnite World Cup, the game was able to make $40 million in the United States alone. The potential loss of revenue could be significant. However, Fortnite’s losses could be worse if you consider all the time that Fortnite was not available to download on Google Play. Games like Fortnite have to be able to capitalize on the time they are popular because many games have the potential to go out of style. However, not taking advantage of all of the popular game platforms could have cost money. If Fortnite mobile was able to get a better deal from Google, then the Fortnite revenue might have been higher.
Putting this all to the side, Fortnite mobile was able to successfully launch on Google Play, giving them the potential to reach a larger percentage of cell phone users. While the $500,000 in revenue might be disappointing when you consider the pandemic caused over $30 million in Fortnite revenue from the iOS store alone. There is potential that Fortnite mobile will see an increase in sales on Google Play as more people learn that the game is now available on their platform. Though it will be interesting to see what Epic Games does the next time they produce a popular game and want to put it on the Google Play Store. Will they allow users to play the game on Google Play sooner?
