Aptoide Games, the specialised games marketplace run by the Portuguese company Aptoide, is now listed on Google Play in the United States. Users search for it, tap install, and get a second app shop on the phone. No sideloading, no APK file.
The Verge called it the first rival Android app store to arrive inside the Play Store itself.
Aptoide dates back to 2009. The company claims around 25 million monthly active users and more than 400,000 Android applications. The United States is its largest market. It distributed through Google Play in Android’s early years, by its own account. Then Google’s rules on competing stores pushed it out.
The door a court prised open
Google did not do this by choice. A US judge ruled in 2024 that Play had to open to rival stores. Google appealed and lost. It then tried to settle globally with Epic Games instead. Judge James Donato voiced repeated scepticism about the joint proposal, and on 15 July the two sides withdrew it altogether.
