Games-only app stores: what Skich and Onside mean for publishers

A games-only app store is exactly what it sounds like: a third-party iOS marketplace that lists nothing but games, instead of trying to be a general-purpose catalogue with games as one tab among many. Two of the clearest examples in 2026 are Skich, which launched a games-focused iOS marketplace in the EU, and Onside, which positions itself as a games-and-apps marketplace live in both the EU and Japan. They matter to publishers because they’re testing a thesis the duopoly never had to: that a focused catalogue can out-discover a giant one.

If you run a studio or hold IP and you’re trying to work out whether these stores are worth your integration budget, this is the read we’d give you over a coffee — what they actually are, why “focused” might beat “huge” for discovery, and where the operational drag hides.

Why a games-only catalogue can beat a general-purpose one

The App Store and Google Play are general-purpose marketplaces. They carry banking apps, parking apps, fitness trackers, and your game, and their discovery surfaces are optimised for that breadth. Game discovery inside them has always been a compromise: a “Games” tab, an editorial team that features a handful of titles, and a search algorithm that has to serve everyone.

A games-only store doesn’t have that compromise. Every recommendation signal and editorial slot is about games. Skich, for instance, built its discovery around a swipe-to-match mechanic — users swipe through titles the way they would on a social app, build playlists, and see what friends are playing. That’s a model you can’t ship inside a store that also has to surface a tax-filing app. The bet is that genre-literate curation and social signals convert browsers into installers better than a general-purpose ranking ever could.

This is the same structural argument we made about the broader shift in the state of alternative app stores in 2026: the duopoly’s one-size-fits-all surface leaves cohorts and discovery patterns underserved, and that gap is where alternative channels earn their keep. Games-only stores are just the sharpest expression of it — they’re not trying to be a smaller App Store, they’re trying to be a better games shelf.

For a publisher, the practical upside is twofold. First, the denominator is smaller: on a curated games store you’re competing for attention against other games, not against every app on Earth, so a mid-tier title has a realistic shot at a featuring slot. Second, the audience is pre-qualified: someone who installs a games-only store is, by definition, there to find games. That’s a higher-intent visitor than the median App Store browser.

What Skich and Onside actually are (as of mid-2026)

Both stores exist because the regulatory door is open. Apple was forced to allow third-party iOS marketplaces in the EU by the Digital Markets Act, which came into force in March 2024, and in Japan by the Mobile Software Competition Act, which began taking effect through late 2025 and into 2026. Without those two regimes, neither store could exist on iPhone at all.

Skich positions itself as a games-focused iOS marketplace in the EU. Its public pitch leans on discovery: the swipe-to-match recommendation system, social playlists, and an activity feed showing what your friends play. On the commercial side, Skich has publicly described charging a 15% commission on purchases and in-app purchases made through the store — half of Apple’s headline 30% on the App Store. It began onboarding titles around GDC in spring 2025.

Onside describes itself as a DMA-compliant iOS distribution platform serving the EU and, as of February 2026, Japan. Its angle is partly catalogue breadth within categories the App Store keeps at arm’s length (it markets itself as able to carry mature-audience, crypto, and gaming content where legally compliant and properly age-gated) and partly speed of distribution — it has claimed developers can publish in well under 24 hours versus the days-or-weeks of App Store review. Onside’s own comparison material lines it up directly against AltStore PAL, Epic Games Store, Aptoide and Skich, which tells you how it sees the competitive set.

A measured caveat: the alt-store space moves fast, public numbers are thin, and both companies are pitching themselves as much as describing a settled reality. Treat install figures, “matched” gamer counts, and category-breadth claims as positioning until you see them in your own dashboards. What’s solid is the structural fact — games-focused iOS storefronts now legally exist in the EU and Japan, competing on discovery and terms rather than scale.

How they fit next to the rest of the alt-store map

Games-only stores are not a replacement for the broader alternative-distribution landscape — they’re a slice of it. The fuller picture, which we lay out in the alternative app stores pillar, includes general-purpose DMA marketplaces (Aptoide, AltStore PAL), platform-holder plays like the Epic Games Store going mobile self-publishing, and the Android-side OEM app stores that carry enormous volume in Asia and Latin America.

Where do Skich and Onside sit in that map? They occupy the curated, discovery-led, iOS-DMA niche. They’re not chasing the volume an OEM preload deal delivers in Indonesia or Brazil; they’re chasing the quality of a self-selected, games-hungry iOS audience in wealthy markets where Apple’s install base is large and ARPU is high. That’s a deliberately narrower bet than Aptoide’s or AltStore’s.

One cost you have to model on any iOS-DMA marketplace, including these, is Apple’s Core Technology Fee — the per-install charge Apple levies on apps distributed through alternative iOS channels past a threshold. We ran the break-even maths in what the Core Technology Fee actually costs a studio, and the headline applies here: the CTF rewards high-ARPU titles and punishes high-volume, low-monetisation ones. A games-only store’s high-intent audience helps on the ARPU side, but if your title is free, ad-monetised and install-heavy, run the numbers before you commit.

The operational reality for a publisher

The temptation with a discovery-led store is to treat it as a low-effort experiment — flip a build, list it, see what happens. That’s the same trap we warn studios away from with every alt-store. A games-only marketplace is still a real channel with its own integration surface.

The build. Distributing through an iOS marketplace means an alternative distribution build, the marketplace’s own SDK or notarisation flow, and (for in-app purchase) its payment integration rather than StoreKit. The delta from your App Store build is smaller than the Android-OEM SDK constellation, but it isn’t zero, and it has to be maintained as Apple’s entitlements evolve.

The merchandising. This is the part publishers underrate on discovery-led stores. A swipe-to-match or playlist-driven surface rewards good store assets — short-form video, sharp capsule art, a hook that reads in a second. If you port your App Store listing verbatim, you’re under-using the exact thing that makes a games-only store worth being on. The channel rewards merchandising effort in a way a search-driven store doesn’t.

The reporting. Each store has its own console, payout cadence, and analytics. With two or three of these, you’ve got two or three reconciliation flows — manageable, but a real ongoing cost, and the part that quietly decays when nobody owns it.

The honest summary: a games-only store is a good fit if your title benefits from curation and you’ll do the merchandising work, and a poor fit if you were hoping to list-and-forget. For the underlying integration and payout mechanics across channels, our distribution practice overview walks through what each store actually demands.

A pragmatic take for 2026

If you’re a publisher weighing Skich, Onside, or the next games-only store to launch, here’s the shape of a sensible decision:

1. Match the store to the title, not the title to the store. A high-intent, curation-led audience favours games with strong hooks and clear genre identity. A generic mid-core title with weak store assets will underperform on a discovery surface as surely as it does in App Store search.
2. Model the Core Technology Fee first. On any iOS-DMA store, the CTF can flip your unit economics. Do that maths before the integration sprint, not after.
3. Commit to the merchandising. The whole point of a games-only store is discovery. Half-hearted store assets waste the channel’s main advantage.
4. Treat it as a real channel, with an owner. One person responsible for the listing, the assets, the reporting. Not a shared back-office afterthought.
5. Watch Japan. Onside being live in Japan via the Mobile Software Competition Act is a signal: the EU’s DMA template is being copied, and the games-only model travels with it. The publishers who learn the mechanics now will be a quarter ahead when the next jurisdiction opens.

Games-only stores won’t replace your App Store and Play presence in 2026. But for the right title, they’re a high-intent, lower-commission shelf that didn’t exist two years ago — and being early on a discovery-led channel is worth more than being late on a crowded one.

If you want a candid read on whether your catalogue fits a games-only store like Skich or Onside — and which two or three channels are actually worth your integration budget — we’d be glad to talk. Early-stage studios can also see how we share the operational load in our founding developer programme.

FAQ

What is a games-only app store?

A games-only app store is a third-party marketplace that lists only games, rather than being a general-purpose catalogue with games as one category among many. On iOS, stores like Skich and Onside exist because the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act force Apple to allow alternative marketplaces. The advantage for publishers is a smaller competitive field and a pre-qualified, games-hungry audience.

How is Skich different from the Apple App Store?

Skich is a games-focused iOS marketplace in the EU, built around discovery features the App Store can’t ship — a swipe-to-match recommendation system, social playlists, and a friends-activity feed. It has publicly described a 15% commission on purchases and in-app purchases, against Apple’s headline 30%. It is a curated games shelf, not a general-purpose store.

What markets do Skich and Onside cover?

Skich launched its games-focused iOS marketplace in the EU. Onside operates in the EU and, as of February 2026, Japan, where alternative iOS marketplaces are enabled by the Mobile Software Competition Act rather than the DMA. Both are iOS-only and confined to jurisdictions where regulation forces Apple to permit third-party stores.

Do I still have to pay Apple’s Core Technology Fee on these stores?

Yes. Any title distributed through an alternative iOS marketplace in the EU falls under Apple’s alternative-distribution terms, which include the Core Technology Fee past an install threshold. The CTF favours high-ARPU titles and can hurt high-volume, low-monetisation games, so model it before committing. We break down the maths in what the Core Technology Fee costs a studio.

Are games-only app stores worth it for a small studio?

For the right title, yes. The curated, discovery-led model gives a mid-tier game a realistic shot at visibility that App Store search rarely offers, and the lower commission helps. The caveats are that you must invest in store merchandising to use the discovery surface, and you must model the Core Technology Fee. It is a poor fit if you were hoping to list and forget.

Will more games-only stores appear in 2026 and beyond?

Very likely. The regulatory infrastructure that allows them — the EU’s DMA and Japan’s Mobile Software Competition Act — is being copied in spirit by other jurisdictions, and the games-only model travels with it. Publishers who learn the mechanics of curated stores like Skich and Onside now are positioning themselves for the next market that opens.

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