Apex Legends takes on Fortnite for battle royale crown, adding new twists to genre’s gameplay
- From out of nowhere, Apex Legends, the new battle royale game by Respawn Entertainment, racked up 10 million players in three days
- With intuitive twists like keeping killed players in the game, it could pose a credible threat to industry-leader Fortnite
Before last week, barely anyone had heard of Apex Legends. It was a project kept so tightly under wraps that when it suddenly launched on February 4, it took video gamers completely by surprise – a difficult thing to do in an industry known for its flashy hype and zealous marketing efforts.
But the stealth approach appears to be working: the game that’s trying to beat industry leader Fortnite at its own formula has grown even faster in its opening days than Fortnite itself.
Hong Kong-set triad-killing game an ode to John Woo films
In its first three days alone, Apex Legends racked up 10 million new players, according to its developer. It took two weeks for Fortnite’s battle royale game to hit the same mark.
Like Fortnite, Apex Legends is a free-to-play competitive shooter that forces players closer and closer together over the course of a match. It also features vibrantly animated characters that are each unique and have special abilities.
But Apex Legends also adds a twist on the battle royale game mode – it allows characters to redeploy if they’re killed, so that players who are killed can stay engaged the whole time. Together with slick movement mechanics and intuitive teamplay, Apex Legends is proving to be an instant hit.
“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,” wrote Vince Zampella, chief executive of developer Respawn Entertainment, in a blog post announcing the 10-million-player milestone.
Part of Apex’s success lies in that almost all of its marketing has been generated by ecstatic players themselves. As part of the launch, the company did establish a live stream of the game on day one. But word of mouth has been equally important, with players introducing the game to one another over messaging apps such as Discord.
Respawn has also leaned on game streamers by announcing a US$200,000 competitive tournament which started on Tuesday in Europe, followed by a North American match on February 19.
Another aspect of the game’s appeal stems from Respawn’s track record. In 2014, the studio released Titanfall, a fast-paced sci-fi shooter that allows players to go from leaping across rooftops one moment to piloting massive armed robots that drop from the sky the next. A highly acclaimed sequel followed in 2016. Both were published by Electronic Arts.
Apex Legends takes place in the same fictional universe as Titanfall, and features some of the same iconic weaponry and responsive controls.
The game has not been without its share of hiccups; for some time last week, players found they were unable to group up with one another due to an issue with EA’s online platform.
Still, that hasn’t deterred millions from signing up, bolstering Respawn Entertainment’s effort to challenge the genre’s reigning king, Fortnite.
The more established game has a much larger registered user base of around 200 million, and roughly 80 million play Fortnite each month. Fortnite has also emerged as a place for gamers to simply hang out with one another, whereas Apex Legends has yet to establish itself as the same kind of nouveau social network.
Video game about throwing people off the roof is a huge hit in China
But at the rate it’s growing, it may not be long before Apex poses a more credible threat.
