Apex Legends went from a complete mystery to a household name faster than your team’s Caustic can ping Bunker. The battle royale cleared another important milestone: its fanbase hit the astonishing mark of 70 million legends.
Respawn Entertainment has been working hard to charm more and more players. Apex is free to play, which definitely helps develop a following.
Shortly after its inception, the game adopted a model of adding content through battle passes. Over three seasons, three new playable legends have joined the fray, armed with new weapons and, more recently, pioneering a whole new map.
The battle pass system isn’t the only attraction in Apex. Respawn have held a series of limited-time events with unique rewards—the latest is the Halloween-themed, goosebump-inducing Fight or Fright.
With EA and Valve’s upcoming partnership, Apex Legends will expectedly reach the Steam Store at some point in 2020. The move to Valve’s popular platform is bound to appeal to a larger player base.
Apex’s silent, fanfare-less launch contrasts deeply with the success it rapidly achieved. It reached 10 million downloads in just three days, 25 million in the first week, and 50 million in a single month. As an added bonus, it obliterated Fortnite’s record for most hours watched in a day on Twitch.
The game was unable to sustain its otherworldly growth rates, however. Twitch statistics website Sullygnome shows that even with this month’s increase in viewership and a sudden peak on Oct. 1, the average number of viewers drastically declined since February.
Still, the fact that Apex has conquered another 20 million players since March is certainly an indicator that the game still appeals to a large fanbase.
