Apple and Google's App Store Grip Is Loosening. Developers Are Still Figuring Out What to Do With That.

The most consequential shift in the mobile app economy over the past two years isn't a new feature or platform release — it's regulatory. The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force in March 2024, legally required Apple and Google to allow third-party app stores and alternative payment systems on their platforms within the EU. Two years in, what has actually changed?

What the DMA Required

For Apple, the DMA mandated: third-party app marketplaces (not just sideloading, but full competing app stores), developer freedom to link to alternative payment methods, and alternative browser engines beyond WebKit on iOS — ending a constraint that had required every iOS browser to use Apple's rendering engine regardless of branding.

Apple's compliance has been technically complete but commercially adversarial. The company introduced a Core Technology Fee — €0.50 per annual install for apps exceeding one million installs — alongside reduced commission rates. The CTF immediately drew controversy: it can cost successful free apps more than the previous 30% commission model depending on install volume. The European Commission has continued to investigate whether Apple's implementation constitutes genuine compliance with the DMA's intent.

Google's response was more straightforward. Android already permitted sideloading and third-party stores (Samsung Galaxy Store and Amazon Appstore have operated for years), and the DMA's requirements were largely met by formalizing existing policies.

Who Launched, and What They Built

Epic Games launched the Epic Games Store for iOS in the EU in April 2024. The store's flagship title is Fortnite, which returned to iOS after a three-year absence following Epic's legal battle with Apple. By early 2026, Epic's iOS store carries approximately 45 titles with Fortnite driving the majority of traffic. Epic has been publicly vocal about the difficulty of convincing developers to commit to a store that lacks the App Store's distribution scale.

AltStore PAL launched with a EU subscription model at €1.50 per year — as permitted under the DMA — focusing on emulators and utilities that the App Store has historically rejected. Delta, a Nintendo emulator, was AltStore's flagship before Apple's own policy reversal made Nintendo emulators globally available on the App Store in mid-2024. That reversal removed AltStore's clearest competitive advantage.

Several adult content platforms and categories the App Store explicitly restricts have launched EU-specific stores. These represent the clearest demonstration of what App Store curation was actually preventing. They also have the smallest mainstream audience.

The Developer Calculus

For the vast majority of developers, the calculation still points to the App Store. Its distribution, discovery infrastructure, billing system, and consumer trust are worth the commission. Moving to a third-party store means building your own billing, customer support for payments, update delivery outside the App Store flow, and discoverability from zero.

The developers for whom alternatives are compelling fall into specific categories: those with very high install volumes and low per-user revenue (where the CTF math shifts), those in content categories the App Store restricts, and large platforms with sufficient brand recognition to drive direct installs. Netflix and Spotify have both directed EU users to direct web payments that bypass App Store billing entirely — not through a third-party store, but through Apple's mandated ability to link to external payment pages.

The US Picture: Slower but Consequential

The legal pressure in the United States has taken a different path. The Epic v. Apple case — which Epic won on one of nine counts — resulted in Apple being required to allow developers to include links to external payment pages in their apps. Apple's initial implementation included a "scare screen" warning and a 27% commission on transactions completed via external links (slightly below the 30% in-app rate, but still applying to external purchases). Courts have continued to narrow this implementation; Apple was held in contempt in 2025 for its compliance approach, and the fee structure remains under judicial review as of mid-2026.

The practical result for US users: some subscription and content apps now display links directing users to the developer's website for purchases. The 30% commission has functionally become a ceiling for large-scale developers willing to manage alternative billing — not a fixed rate.

What Google Is Facing

Google's equivalent regulatory pressure has played out differently. In the US, Google lost the Epic v. Google antitrust case in 2023, with a jury finding that the Google Play Store illegally maintained a monopoly. The remedies — including requiring Google to allow competing app stores on Android and to treat third-party stores on equal terms with the Google Play Store — have been under implementation since 2024.

On Android, this matters less structurally because Android has always allowed sideloading and third-party stores. The meaningful change is that Google can no longer use anti-competitive agreements with device manufacturers to disadvantage third-party stores. Samsung Galaxy Store, Amazon Appstore, and several regional stores have benefited from improved default placement.

The Long View

The structural dominance of the App Store and Google Play hasn't broken. Both remain the default installation path for the overwhelming majority of apps, and that won't change without consumer behaviour shifts that regulation alone can't force. But the leverage dynamics have shifted. Apple and Google are now in active negotiations with large developers about commission rates and terms in ways that weren't true before 2022.

The trajectory is a mobile ecosystem where platforms maintain their marketplaces but can no longer require all transactions to flow through them. That's a meaningful economic change even when the consumer experience looks similar day-to-day. For developers building at significant scale, the app store relationship is now a negotiation, not a take-it-or-leave-it.