Apex Legends has attracted over 70 million players since its debut and it could soon gain another: Valve boss Gabe Newell. Newell recently said the battle royale is on his list of games to play—and it could teach him a thing or two about game development.
“One game I really want to start playing that I haven’t—I have no excuse, but I want to play Apex Legends more than I have,” Newell said in a Jan. 19 interview with New Zealand network 1News. “That’s in my list of games that I really want to play.”
To Newell, playing Apex would be more than just an enjoyable experience. “I think I’ll enjoy playing it, which is always good, but I also think there’s things that I’ll learn as a video game developer from playing Apex,” he said.
In response, Respawn devs have invited Gabe to play a few games. “If you and your squad wanna play a few games with Respawn’s design leads and directors, hit us up,” director of community and communications Ryan Rigney wrote. “We’re big fans.”
Newell isn’t Apex‘s only famous fan, though. Rapper Bryson Tiller is an avid player and has joined Jack “Nicewigg” Martin in several videos. Tiller even participated in the season seven playtest in October.
Rahul Kohli, the kind-hearted, pun-fueled cook Owen on Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor was also an early adopter of the battle royale. Two weeks after Apex launched, he tweeted that he was “REALLY liking” the game—although he admitted to preferring Warzone last year.
