Apex Legends hit 10 million players in 3 days, but can it catch up with Fortnite?

Apex Legends hit 10 million players this week. Respawn’s new battle royale game came (almost) out of nowhere earlier this week and things are looking up so far. While it may still have a massive mountain to climb before it reaches the heights of its closest competitors, the not-quite Titanfall shooter is off to a running start.

For those that may have missed the announcement stream and our initial coverage, Apex Legends is a 60-player battle royale-style shooter. It features teams of 3, Overwatch-like classes/characters (8 of them right now), some interesting team mechanics and light nods to the Titanfall lore it pulls from. In fact, fans of that series will likely be familiar with some of the jargon and weapon types found in Apex Legends,  but don’t be fooled, this is not Titanfall 3 (more on that below).

Apex Legends Hit 10 Million Players:

EA, the game’s publisher, took to its official blog this morning to announce some player numbers for the battle royale’s first week on the market. In fact, in just 72 hours of being available, Respawn tracked 10 million gamers with more than 1 million concurrent players.

We knew it would be risky to take the franchise in this direction, to go free to play, and do a surprise launch. But we fell in love with Apex Legends and wanted, needed, other people to play it too.

In the Wake of Fortnite:

While those sound like some impressive numbers, and they are, it still has some work to do to reach the figure Fortnite has been puling in as of late. The genre leader last reported an impressive 8.3 million concurrent players and it might have topped 10 million during a special event just last week. Sure, Apex Legends hit 10 million players in just 3 days, so we should give it some time to ramp up, but it certainly has a long way to go. While Call of Duty’s battle royale option and the soon to be released Battlefield Firestorm (delayed to Q2 2019) require gamers to purchase the base game, they nonetheless represent even more competition for Apex Legends.

Additional Content Inbound:

We already know more Titanfall is in the works based on recent reports and confirmation from studio head Vince Zampella, but that doesn’t mean work is finished on Apex Legends. Respawn is already planning major updates to the game that will come in the form of Fortnite-like seasons and such. Those include new heroes/classes, weapons and more than likely, loads of cosmetic items. There will be a battle pass made available for purchase for even more loot options, but you will be able to continue playing the game for free either way.

Apex Legends is available free on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

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