The Google Play Store is now carrying its first third-party app store in the United States, a marketplace called Aptoide Games offering a mix of free and paid titles. The addition marks a notable shift in how Android users can discover and install applications directly through Google’s official storefront.
To browse the new marketplace, open the Play Store app on an Android phone and tap the profile icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Scrolling down the menu reveals an option labelled “Third-party app stores”. Tapping it displays a list of available marketplaces, which currently contains a single entry for Aptoide Games. Selecting it presents a button to install the third-party app store within the Google Play Store.
What you can install from Aptoide Games
The catalogue leans heavily towards gaming, alongside at least one health application. Huawei Health tracks health metrics, workouts and calorie consumption on any handset running Android 6.0 or higher, with no Huawei device required. It can measure, record and display heart rate, weight, sleep quality and step count, and lets users create and share videos of outdoor fitness routines.
Games on offer include Clash of Kings, a real-time strategy title in which players build a castle as a lord, and Vikings: War of Clans PvP, casting the player as a Viking chieftain building a stronghold, training armies and engaging in PvP and PvE battles. Legend of Mushroom is an RPG in which players take the role of a mushroom on a quest to become human, while LUDUS: Merge Arena PvP tasks players with collecting and upgrading more than 100 unique heroes for arena combat.
Further titles include Wartune Ultra, a strategy-based role-playing game; Saint Seiya: Legend of Justice, a team-building battle game; Duck Survival, a roguelike shooter set against zombies and giant bosses; and The Ants: Underground Kingdom, in which an ant colony builds its anthill and protects the Queen.
Why the change happened
The arrival of a third-party app store inside the Play Store stems from a court order, itself the outcome of the Epic Games v Google lawsuit. Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, sued Google over the 30% commission the company took on in-app purchases. Epic had added a direct payment system to Fortnite to bypass those fees, a move that violated Play Store regulations.
Google removed Fortnite from the Play Store on 13 August 2020 after the direct payment system was introduced, prompting the litigation that ultimately compelled Google to host third-party apps. On the same date, Apple also removed Fortnite from the App Store for the same reason. Google lost the major antitrust lawsuit brought by Epic Games, whereas Apple won most of its 2021 court battle with the developer.
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Image: phonearena.com
