Android phone owners setting up a new phone have run into the same issues for years. You queue up several dozen apps and then dutifully wait for them to install one at a time. With the latest Google Play Store update, however, it'll now download and install multiple apps at once.
First spotted by 9to5Google, the new functionality comes as part of the Google Play 40.6.31 update. To check and see if you have it, open the Play Store, click your profile photo, and access the settings. From there, tap the About section to see which version you have. There is also a button there to update your Play Store install if it's not the latest version.
We tested this with three games and the third game was shown as pending, so it seems like two is the limit for the number of simultaneous downloads. (Still twice as fast as it was before.)
The new simultaneous downloads feature only works for fresh installs of new apps. Updates still perform as they did previously with the Play Store updating one at a time. As 9to5Google notes, the simultaneous downloads are likely being rolled out slowly to avoid any issues before expanding to the full scope of the Play Store.
The move is part of Google's April update for its various Google System apps, so it should already be installed on most Android phones running the latest version of the OS. This is the same string of updates that gifted Android users with offline Find My Phone support on Android devices, which will expand in May to allow Bluetooth trackers as well. Part of those updates also saw improvements for Google Wallet and Google Play Services.