Google Play Services

You can actually go to settings, about phone, software information, Google play, and then check and apply updates from there. More on reddit.com

Don't be too bothered by it. The Google Play System Update is always late. Lots of people are still on the Nov update, not just you. More on reddit.com

I think this is a common bug or over-optimization by Google, but they're not telling you openly. Some apps will auto-update but not those apps that you are not using very often. Those always only update when you try to open them. Google thinks if you don't use them so often there's no point in updating them. I really dislike this behavior where the computer thinks it's smarter than me, ignoring my auto-update settings. More on reddit.com

Definitely a Google Play Store issue. The app is updated to the latest possible version, but the update option still remains. If you noticed, the update size is not shown anymore, after the initial update is installed. If you open Google Play Store & search for Google Play Games or just press on the stuck update option, there is no Update button as per usual when there is a pending update, but the regular Uninstall & Open buttons as if the app is up to date. I also tried clearing the cache & app data of both Google Play Store & Google Play Games, uninstalling Google Play Games, uninstalling Google Play Store updates, and sideloading Google Play Games-nothing worked. I even extracted the Google Play Games app after it got the faulting update, uninstalled it & tried to reinstall the very same apk file that I extracted. It failed with the message that this version cannot be installed because it's incompatible with my phone. And that's the very same version that was installed by Google Play Store. So this shows that there is an issue with either the signature of the app or Google Play Store just installs the wrong version. Another thing that points in that direction is that I sideloaded the proper version for my phone from ApkMirror, but even then, Google Store updated the version & got stuck again. So in conclusion: Google Play Store or Google Play Games should investigate to the matter as it seems that only this version of the app causes the issue. Google Play Games is the same version, just my phone is different- Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G, OneUI 5.1, Android 13, all software updates & patches installed. My other phone is Samsung Galaxy XCover 6 Pro-no such issue there, but the Google Play Games version is different as that phone has different DPI & is on OneUI 6, Android 14. More on reddit.com