Crypto has always been an oddball character in Apex Legends. As a game that made its name on the slick gunplay and movement that typified the Titanfall series combined with different, unique characters in a battle royale setting, Apex players tend to like fast-paced, in-your-face action.
Crypto runs counter to that ethos as a character that typically sits back behind fights and reveals enemies to his teammates with his drone. That’s why it was a bit of a surprise when, upon season 16’s release, Crypto’s pick rate rocketed up the charts according to Apex Legends Status, from the least-picked character slot that he usually occupied to the middle of the pack, more than doubling his overall pick rate across all players in the ALS database.
At the time, many saw the spike in popularity as something of a mystery. While season 16 brought plenty of character changes, Crypto wasn’t on the receiving end of any large buffs or changes to his kit outside of the new Recon class perk. So why was Crypto suddenly getting so much love from Apex players?
The answer, it turns out, was pretty simple: If you give a character away for free, people will play him.
As part of Apex’s fourth anniversary, the devs over at Respawn gave away several goodies for free if players logged into the game. This included unlocking Crypto as a log-in reward for players who opened Apex during the first week of the anniversary event.
Considering that season 16 has been one of the most successful and widely-played seasons in Apex history, it’s not difficult to unravel the mystery of Crypto’s pick rate from there. That becomes even more obvious when considering how much of season 16 was aimed at making life better for newer players—meaning those who had yet to unlock Crypto and actually try him out for themselves.
Related: All Apex Legends character pick rates
The same pattern was born out when Ash was given away as a free character the following week. But in her case, the rise in pick rate went somewhat unnoticed, since Ash was already a character that was picked far more often than Crypto. A character in the middle of the pack rising in pick rate but remaining in the middle of the pack just doesn’t have quite the same eye-opening statistics as the least-picked character in the game suddenly threatening the top 10 most-picked legends.
And how do we know that Crypto’s popularity won’t last? Pretty simple, really. He’s already sunk back down to being the fourth least-picked character and continues to trend downwards to the bottom.
If anything, giving away Crypto and Ash for free was a good way for newer players to try out a couple of new characters that they might not have picked up otherwise for a time. But in Crypto’s case, it’s just not enough for most players to get over all of his playstyle being connected to his drone. Players want to be close to the action, not witnessing it from a camera.
