The latest free-to-play battle royale title is off to a strong start.
Update #2 February 7, 1:10 p.m.: Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella has announced yet another major milestone in playercount for Apex Legends.
Zampella announced on Twitter that 10 million players have tried out Apex Legends in just 72 hours. EA previously confirmed 2.5 million had played in the first day, meaning an additional 7.5 jumped in in the subsequent two days. Apex Legends also hit 1 million peak concurrent players in those three days.
“This has been a truly incredible journey. We tested and tweaked. We argued and agreed. We got to a point where we felt some magic. 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,” Zampella wrote in a blog post.
Update: Following Respawn’s announcement of Apex Legends’ strong success in its initial hours, EA has confirmed how many players jumped into the new battle royale in its launch day.
During the Electronic Arts Q3 earnings call, as spotted by VG 24/7, EA confirmed that 2.5 million players tried out the Titanfall universe-set competitive game in its first 24 hours. And, according to EA, it reached a peak concurrent of 600,000 players during that first day as well.
For more on Respawn’s latest, find out why there are no titans in Apex Legends, and learn more about the “premium” Titanfall experience planned for later this year.
Original story follows:
Respawn Entertainment’s free-to-play battle royale game went live yesterday, and had over one million unique players within eight hours of launch.
The studio’s CEO, Vince Zampella, tweeted the news early Tuesday morning, saying that he was “overwhelmed” and adding in, “Thank you so much for showing up and being part of this with @Respawn you are amazing!!”
Apex Legends reached a peak of almost 500,000 viewers on Twitch and is sitting at around 200,000 at the time of writing, according to GitHyp.
Apex Legends was officially revealed yesterday during a livestream. The squad-based shooter is set in the Titanfall universe, but doesn’t feature mechs.
Set 30 years after Titanfall 2 in an area called the Outlands, the characters compete in a true battle royale environment, but Respawn has stated clearly that it is not a sequel to Titanfall 2.
“There are some people who think there are too many battle royale games or it’s a fad,” said lead producer, Drew McCoy. “The world thinks we’re making Titanfall 3 and we’re not – this is what we’re making.”
While it is free-to-play, Apex Legends will feature loot boxes called Apex Packs, a store where you can buy cosmetics, additional characters that can be bought (or earned through gameplay), and a Battle Pass.
If you’re jumping in, be sure to check out our top tips to get prepared and let us know in the comments what you think of the game so far.
Shabana is a freelance writer who enjoys JRPGs, wine, and not finishing games. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
