Epic Games recently opened sign-ups for the upcoming Fortnite Android beta. The beta will precede the next major platform release for Fortnite, which is already available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and iOS mobile devices. However, by choosing to avoid the Google Play Store, a new report suggests that Google stands to miss out on at least $50 million in revenue by the end of the year.

The Fortnite Android Beta and How it Impacts Google

The Google Play Store is the primary app store for Android devices, and Google takes a 30% cut of all revenue generated through it. However, Epic Games have chosen not to launch the game via the Google Play Store. Instead, players will be able to download it directly from Epic Games’ website. A new report published by Sensor Tower suggests that the decision could cause Google to miss out on an enormous amount of revenue. Based on data gathered by Sensor Tower, the projected loss could be at least $50 million in platform fees just in the rest of 2018.

Fortnite has grossed over $180 million on iOS devices; the only mobile platform the game is currently available on. Thanks to that success, Apple has also been gaining huge amounts of revenue; projected to be around $54 million since its launch. Like Google, Apple takes a 30% cut on all in-app spending on its own app store platform. While Fortnite’s popularity on Android could differ from projections, it seems likely that the game will nonetheless generate an enormous amount of revenue.

It’s unknown at present whether Epic Games’ decision to bypass the Google Play Store was motivated by anything in particular. Given that they already pay a 30% cut to Apple on iOS devices, it seems strange for them to balk at paying Google a similar amount. Nevertheless, the huge amount of missed revenue is likely to motivate Google to approach Epic Games directly. The company may well seek to make a deal to put Fortnite on the Google Play Store before its full launch.