Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
- "Fortnite" arrives on Android on Thursday.
- The game is free as always, but only available on a handful of Samsung devices at first.
- It's coming to a variety of other Android devices in the coming days, including Google's Pixel line and LG's G phones.
The biggest game in the world is finally coming to the biggest mobile platform in the world: "Fortnite" launches on Android starting on Thursday.
In a bizarre move that was previously rumored, the game's only available on Samsung's lineup of Galaxy devices (the S7 / S7 Edge , S8 / S8+, S9 / S9+, Note 8, Note 9, Tab S3, and Tab S4) initially. In the "next few days" the game will arrive on a wider variety of Android phones, from Google's Pixel phones to LG's line of G phones (and more).
Epic Games, the maker of "Fortnite," says players can sign up for access to "Fortnite" on Android through this website.
Epic Games
Unlike most Android games, "Fortnite" is skipping Google's Play Store.
Instead, you'll download the game directly through Epic's website - updates will be served to the game directly from Epic, thus enabling faster fixes. As a major bonus to Epic Games, all the money made through "Fortnite" on Android goes directly to Epic without having to pay the 30% cut Google takes from Google Play Store games.
Though we've yet to play "Fortnite" on Android, it should operate very similarly to how the game already operates on iPhone.
As seen above on an iPhone X, controls are represented as virtual buttons on-screen. It's otherwise the same insane game you can play on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One: A 100-player fight to the death in an environment that's getting smaller over time.
Here's the full list of supported Android devices for "Fortnite":
- Google: Pixel / Pixel XL, Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL
- Asus: ROG Phone, Zenfone 4 Pro, 5Z, V
- Essential: PH-1
- Huawei: Honor 10, Honor Play, Mate 10 / Pro, Mate RS, Nova 3, P20 / Pro, V10
- LG: G5, G6, G7 ThinQ, V20, V30 / V30+
- Nokia: 8
- OnePlus: 5 / 5T, 6
- Razer: Phone
- Xiaomi: Blackshark, Mi 5 / 5S / 5S Plus, 6 / 6 Plus, Mi 8 / 8 Explorer / 8SE, Mi Mix, Mi Mix 2, Mi Mix 2S, Mi Note 2
- ZTE: Axon 7 / 7s, Axon M, Nubia / Z17 / Z17s, Nubia Z11