It’s still exciting: Apex Legends player base is on the rise

Despite the debut of Warzone 2, Overwatch 2, and other free-to-play games in 2022, Apex Legends remains one of the most popular first-person shooter games available.

In November 2020, Apex Legends made its Steam debut. Since then, the game has consistently broken records on the platform, reaching a peak of over 510,286 players in Season 14, which was released in August.

Unfortunately, Apex Legends was unable to maintain the trend of breaking the most active player count record in Season 15. According to Steam Charts, the game has attracted between 170,000 and 190,000 players in six months on average. Season 15’s peak player count was 411,000 which is a lot less than Season 14’s peak player number.

 

However, the data from the statistical website ActivePlayer paints a picture of a trajectory that is more stable. In the last six months, the number of active players has been relatively constant at 65 million. With 38.92% of all active players in Apex, the United States leads all other countries in terms of player count.

The United Kingdom comes in second with 7.18%, followed by Russia with 5.81%. The player trend either remains stable or shows a slight decline over the past six months, suggesting that the developer’s attempts to keep players interested and engaged are at least in the United States successful. Furthermore, the number of Apex Legends players in 2023 is projected to be between 15 and 16 million weekly active players.

How Apex Legends survived the wave of new launches

Apex Legends’ popularity may partly be attributed to its unique gameplay mechanics, one of the first of its kind in the battle royale genre. Prior to the release of the game, there were no respawn mechanics in battle royales. Previously, if you were knocked out and killed, that was game over for you.

However, with the introduction of Apex, Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts added the option to capture dead teammates’ banners and respawn them via a respawn beacon. Another factor contributing to the game’s expanding fan base is the regular release of fresh content.

Furthermore, the popular ping feature for communication, one of the best in the industry, enables players to interact with one another without the need for verbal contact. You can do a number of things, like marking an item, marking opponents, warning your friends about intruders, and much more. The technology has been patented by EA and made available as an open-source tool for use in other video games.

Image Credit: Xbox/ Electronic Art