More than 10 million players have dropped into the battle arena of Respawn Entertainment's new title Apex Legends since the game launched on 4 February 2019. The game also managed to crush Fortnite and other BR games in Twitch views.
It's safe to say that Respawn Entertainment's Apex Legends is enjoying a successful launch, despite the fact that both the developer and publisher EA never mentioned the game until its release.
After the initial influx of players, which saw the total player count rise up to 2.5 million just 24 hours after the launch, Apex Legends is hitting new heights and this time it's beating the biggest names in the battle royale genre.
The latest message from Respawn Entertainment's CEO Vince Zampella reveals that more than 10 million players have played Apex Legends in the last 72 hours and what makes the launch even more impressive is the concurrent player total, which hit the 1 million mark.
Now those are some pretty impressive numbers and when put into perspective they sound even bigger. For example, Fortnite Battle Royale hit 10 million players two weeks after the launch while PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds reached the number almost half a year after the release.
EA's flagship shooter Battlefield V is yet to reach such a big milestone but to be fair, Apex Legends is free to play the game so that can be seen a small consolation for Dice.
Respawn Entertainment
In his message on EA website, Zampella also offered some insight into decisions that led to the Apex Legends launch. According to him, the team knew the risks of their plans for monetisation and launch. "We knew it would be risky to take the franchise in this direction, to go free to play, and do a surprise launch," Zampella said.
He also added that the team never in their wildest dreams could we have expected the "outpouring of support and positivity" they've seen since the announcement.
All in all, it's looking pretty good for Apex Legends and it will be interesting to monitor these numbers in the next few weeks. Is it really a battle royale game we've been waiting for or just a launch hype? Time will tell.
Apex Legends is available for free on Origin, PlayStation and Xbox Store.
Apex Legends by Respawn Entertainment - screenshot & art gallery
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