Ryan-Thomas Shaw / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Popular battle royale shooter Fortnite is returning to the Google Play Store.
- The game was removed from the marketplace in 2020 after launching a direct payment system that violated the store’s policies.
- Fortnite will make its return on March 19, 2026.
It’s hard to believe that Fortnite has been missing from the Google Play Store for over half a decade at this point. After a lengthy legal battle between Epic and Google, the insanely popular battle royale shooter is making its return to Android’s default marketplace. And it will be available sooner than you expect.
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Today, Epic announced on social media that Fortnite is finally coming back to the Play Store. The game is scheduled to make its return on Thursday, March 19. Right on time for you to catch the new season, which also just happens to roll out tomorrow.
No matter where you are, we’ve got you covered. Fortnite is back on Google Play.
Fortnite was pulled from the Play Store back in 2020 for violating store policies. The issue at the time was that Epic launched a direct payment system within the app. This allowed Epic to circumvent Google’s 30% cut for in-app sales. While there were still ways to play the game on Android, you could no longer download Fortnite straight from the Play Store.
But that’s all water under the bridge now. Both companies even brokered a deal where Epic would spend around $800 million over six years on Google services. In return, Google agreed to help promote Fortnite and other Epic products more widely on Android, while also gaining more access to Epic’s Unreal Engine.
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