Fortnite Avoiding the Play Store Will Cause Google to Miss out on “At Least $50 Million”
Fortnite is finally available on Android, in its beta stage, but Google could be the biggest losers after Epic Games’ decision to avoid using the Google Play store.
Epic Games, developer of the immensely popular battle royale game, decided not to go through the Play Store for the application on Android phones, instead using its own launcher.
It is a decision likely motivated by Google’s 30% cut on all microtransactions, and since revenue generated by Fortnite comes from solely from mictrotransactions, Epic Games are unsurprisingly unwilling to hand a chunk of this to Google.
So the Android download of Fortnite is done directly through Epic’s own website. Currently, priority is being given to Samsung users and selected other devices – see the full list here.
The consequences of Epic Games decision for Google then, are quite severe. Such is the popularity of Fortnite and its microtransaction monetization model.
Analytics from Sensor Tower estimated a loss of at least $50 million for Google, for the remainder of 2018 alone.
Fortnite on iOS has so far generated more than $180 million, of which Apple has received nearly $54 million through its 30% commission.
Unaffected by this commission, Fortnite Android could well rake in even more for Epic Games, but it will need to do so without the controls and security that would otherwise be provided by Google’s system.
Sensor Tower also points out that by ‘circumventing’ the Google Play Store, Epic will make it more difficult for users of older Android devices to download Fortnite.
“We expect this to have some impact on downloads of the game, but not to a large enough degree as to affect its revenue potential in the long run.”
Source: Sensor Tower