One of the biggest stories from earlier in 2019 was the almost overnight success of Apex Legends, the newest Battle Royale game from developer Respawn Entertainment. For what seemed like the entirety of February, we received updates on insane milestones that Apex was hitting, even reaching 50 million players within its first month on the market. But just as all of its popularity seemed to generate so quickly, interest in it has died substantially.
According to a report on Seeking Alpha, Twitch and Google data show that interest in Apex Legends has slowed down tremendously. As you can see according to the two charts below, interest in Apex peeked around mid February and has been on a decline ever since.
The report also noted that EA did not achieve popularity with Apex Legends in an organic manner, which ultimately has hurt the game. The company spent millions of dollars paying streamers to play, which is partly why it became so popular during its launch. Once streamers stopped playing, the spotlight moved away from Apex Legends.
When compared to something like Fortnite, a game that is often used in comparison, Apex saw quick and drastic drops in popularity. Whereas Fortnite’s interest has increased a bit more gradually and consistently. During Apex Legends’ peek, interest in Fortnite declined, but only slightly. So for those who were wondering if Apex Legends would be the game to ultimately overtake Fortnite, it does not seem like that is the case.
Despite these declining numbers, EA and Respawn still deserve praise for what they were able to achieve with Apex Legends. It was unusual to see a game succeed so quickly, especially when you consider how it came out of nowhere, with almost no buildup.
If you’re still playing Apex, you’re probably aware of the recent patch that updated various issues including weapon balancing and UI big fixes.
Are you still playing Apex Legends? What do you make of these stats? Let us know!
[Source: Seeking Alpha]
