Mobile games are undoubtedly fun, but finding new titles beyond the staples has proven difficult on the App Store and Play Store. But will third-party marketplaces, like the Epic Games Store, help improve the mobile gaming experience and quality of titles? Here’s what I think.
The Epic Games Store Arrives on Mobile
Not to be confused with the Epic Games Launcher—first made available to distribute Fortnite in 2018—the Epic Games Store is a new mobile marketplace experience to discover, purchase, and download new mobile titles.
Epic Games launched the store on mobile on 16 August 2024, also announcing the arrival of Fall Guys on mobile in the company’s blog post. Epic has stated it plans to develop this storefront into a hybrid games store featuring game titles for PC and Mac.
At the time of publishing, the application is available to download from Epic Games’ website and will work on all Android devices running Android 7.0 or later—worldwide. As for iPhone users, the application is only available to download in the European Union.
Is the Epic Games Store Worth Installing?
With all that said, is this third-party mobile games store something to be excited about, and is it worth installing?
Once I sideloaded the app onto my Android device, the experience was fairly straightforward. There are no sections in the app at the moment and it just puts the three launch titles—Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Rocket League Sideswipe (along with Postparty)— front and center.
Here, you can hit the install button and approve the Epic Games Store as a source to install apps onto your device—similar to the prompt you would’ve faced while sideloading the store itself. And voila! You have your new games.
However, when it comes down to whether the Epic Games Store is worth installing, I think its presence makes a lot of sense, especially for those using Android devices, because title discovery does seem to be a prevalent issue on mobile.
If you look at my Android phone and its installed games, you probably won’t find something built by an indie studio. On my iPhone, the situation is a little better, thanks to the Apple Arcade subscription, which improved title discovery.
The main draw of the app is the ability to install Fall Guys and Fortnite easily. Rocket League Sideswipe is available on the Google Play Store, so the Epic Games Store mobile app isn’t essential if you’re only interested in this title.
Overall, my experience with the app has been simple, and I think the launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile will help more quality games to come to the forefront of players’ feeds—ones that people will want to play. I can’t wait to see what’s to come.
