Apex Legends
Apex Legends
Popular PC battle royale Apex Legends is finally coming to mobile
Fariha Bhatti
Electronic Arts and Respawn Studios have announced that the beta version of Apex Legends’ mobile is rolling out as soon as this month. The battle royale game was released for PC in 2019 and has since then made waves for its unique gameplay, legend abilities, and thorough gunplay. After earning its stripes in the PC ecosystem, Apex Legends is debuting in a whole new mobile gaming arena. The developer is …
Apex Legends
Apex Legends reveals new legend Valkyrie before season 9
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends released an animated short as part of its “Stories from the Outlands” series. This one was called Northstar and featured Valkyrie, the battle royale’s newest legend. The story follows Valkyrie as a child where she attempts to follow in her father’s footsteps as a Northstar Titan pilot. Her father ended up dying one of these “death traps” and it made others in Valkyrie’s life wary of her attempting …
Apex Legends
Apex Legends Season 9 will add new hero, fix Banglore bugs
Olivia Richman
Season 9 is bringing big changes to legends in Apex Legends. Developers confirmed that Lifeline’s passive ability, Combat Revive, is getting a massive nerf come May 4, but other legends are getting balance updates in Season 9 too. When Chaos Theory dropped March 9, players noticed that Bangalore and Caustic had some changes that weren’t in any official patch notes. And they didn’t like them one bit. After the update, …
Apex Legends
Apex Legends hits 100 million players as season 9 approaches
Olivia Richman
Now more than two years old, Apex Legends has hit more than 100 million unique players. Respawn Entertainment tweeted the news on Wednesday, thanking fans for helping Apex Legends hit this impressive milestone. The tweet was accompanied by a montage of legends and popular streamers and pro players enjoying the game. “We’re just getting started,” Respawn added. 100 million strong, and we’re just getting started. Thank you, Legends! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/FlINru0lx5 …
Apex Legends
Horizon will receive major nerfs in upcoming Apex Legends update
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends developers have told players that Horizon will receive a huge nerf when Season 9 drops in May. Respawn is already looking to make some big legend changes on March 9 with the introduction of the Chaos Theory update. Pathfinder received a buff with the removal of Low Profile. Caustic got a concerning nerf after his ultimate, Nox Gas Grenade, had its cooldown increased from 2.5 minutes to 3.5 …
Apex Legends
Does Apex Legends have crossplay and is there cross-progression?
Steven Rondina
One of the best parts of battle royale games is their accessibility. Alongside being free-to-play, a number of prominent titles in the genre have embraced cross-platform play to allow users to party up with friends no matter what platform is their favorite. One game that has complete crossplay support is Apex Legends. Though EA Games’ battle royale lost a lot of its early momentum due to how slowly it added …
Apex Legends
How to fix Apex Legends’ Party Leader Quit, Party Not Ready bugs
Olivia Richman
Since Apex Legends’ launch, players have received sudden “Party Not Ready” and “Party Leader Quit” messages. While these issues aren’t a huge deal, they can be quite annoying. Luckily, there are some simple solutions to get right back into the game. This message often appears when a player is trying to enter a game. It can occur when a player is solo queuing or hopping in with a full party. …
Apex Legends
Apex Legends Season 8 almost unplayable due to bugs, lag
Olivia Richman
Respawn Entertainment has actually brought the mayhem, but it’s probably not the mayhem Apex Legends players wanted. Season 8 was a big update for the battle royale. Kings Canyon saw significant changes, the powerful 30-30 Repeater was introduced, and new legend Fuse joined the fray. But it wasn’t all fun and games. The new season brought some major issues along with it as well. Two of the main issues are the …
Apex Legends giving out badges to honor Black History Month, BLM
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Respawn Entertainment is acknowledging the importance of Black History Month with a new iconic badge. The bold black and gold badge features the Black Lives Matter symbol of a raised fist. The symbol was first brought to life by the Black Panther Party, which was formed in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The salute between members soon became a gesture of strength and solidarity. The Black Lives …
Apex Legends launch date on Nintendo Switch possibly revealed
Steven Rondina
Apex Legends
A new crop of Apex Legends players are set to arrive in the game. According to a report by Ascii, the Nintendo Switch version of Apex Legends is confirmed and set to launch in the very near future. The news was then confirmed by Respawn Entertainment on Twitter. With Season 8 freshly launched and Switch players set to miss out on the action, EA Games is set to reward newcomers …
Apex Legends pro ImperialHal swatted while live streaming
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Yet another streamer has been made a victim of swatting. Apex Legends pro Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen was streaming the battle royale when cops showed up at his house. His teammates listened in horror as ImperialHal left his desk to talk with the officers. They can be heard telling ImperialHal to raise his hands and get on the ground, most likely believing that a serious crime had been committed. After the …
Apex Legends Season 7 introduces new map Olympus
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Respawn has given Apex Legends players an official first look at the game’s new map, Olympus. Season 7 is coming to the competitive battle royale on November 4, bringing with it a new legend, Horizon, as well as a new map. Horizon was revealed to be a talented scientist working on solving an energy crisis on her home city of Olympus. A betrayal causes Horizon to almost be sucked into …
Apex Legends players angry at Fight or Fright event skins, prices
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
The Apex Legends community is mad at Respawn Entertainment’s Fight or Fright collection sales model. Most of the exclusive cosmetics from the Fight or Fright event are only available through bundles purchased with Apex Coins. Reddit immediately exploded about this news. One Apex Legends player said that being limited to bundles “blows.” It was difficult to find anyone disagreeing with the player’s remarks, with other gamers calling the sale model …
shroud argues that Apex Legends is the best battle royale
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Even though Michael “shroud” Grzesiek used to be a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, he’s proven during his full-time Twitch career that he can master any first-person shooter. Recently, shroud has decided to play Apex Legends again. He often plays the battle royale between trying out other new titles. According to Twitch Tracker, shroud played Apex Legends for about five hours on October 8, gaining quite a few viewers and …
The best Apex Legends landing spots in World’s Edge Season 6
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
World’s Edge is back in Season 6 and it’s looking a bit different. There’s three new points of view and passageways, making the map more open than in past seasons. There’s a lot to explore and it can be difficult to know just where to begin. Here’s a closer look at each potential landing spot, helping players decide which POI is best for their specific playstyle and tactics. High-level gear …
Apex Legend’s DUMMIES Big Day removed due to major bugs
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
“We’re hitting pause on the party.” Soon after DUMMIES Big Day went live on Apex Legends servers, Respawn developers removed the limited-time mode. Respawn took to Twitter to inform fans that the fun mode would be removed after they discovered a bug that caused server crashes when a player was away from their keyboard on character select. “For the health of the game and our players, we’re turning it off …
Rampart abilities revealed in new Apex Legends trailer
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
After being teased in the Season Six trailer, Apex Legends has revealed the abilities of Rampart, the game’s newest legend. Per usual, Apex Legends developers allowed the suspense to build before finally showing off the legend. Rampart was first teased back on August 4 in a tweet from the game’s official account. The tweet included a voice message Bangalore left for Rampart, calling her “P.” The soldier asks Rampart if …
Dr Disrespect hints at big things ahead, rants on Apex Legends
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Despite his long and mysterious disappearance, Herschel “Dr Disrespect” Beahm is already fed up with the gaming industry. Dr Disrespect has returned to streaming, this time on YouTube, and he’s brought some strong opinions with him. The Two-Time couldn’t just be silent while watching the Apex Legends Season 6 gameplay trailer. For fans, it was as if the Doctor had never left since he was already back to sharing his …
Apex Legends Global Series adds online events $100K prize pools
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
The Apex Legends Global Series is going online as part of EA’s Stay and Play initiative. Instead of physical tournaments, Apex Legends pro teams will compete for $100,000 and ALGS points in multiple online tournaments. On top of that, the tournaments wil be heavily broadcasted to allow fans to watch the action while in isolation. “As the global coronavirus situation evolves, we want to help the world find more ways …
Team Liquid Apex Legends player Casper tests positive for COVID-19
Olivia Richman
Apex Legends
Apex Legends player Brenden “Casper” Marino has tested positive for coronavirus. “COVID test came back positive. The nurses aren’t very concerned for someone my age. It’s pretty much just like a cold. Said it should be about eight to 12 more days till I should start feeling a lot better. Now to sit in my room for two weeks straight. Thanks everyone for the support,” he tweeted out earlier today. While …
Apex Legends blew up the hero shooter genre and shook up battle royales in a permanent way; but where is the game headed at this point?
Few games have had as explosive a launch as Apex Legends. The game was effectively shadow-dropped and instantly became one of the biggest titles in its genre. Though it didn’t “kill” Fortnite as some predicted, and didn’t necessarily even slow down its growth, it did carve out a niche of its own.
But where did Apex go from there? And where is the game headed at this point? Here’s everything there is to know about Apex Legends’ history and future.
What is Apex Legends?
Apex Legends is a hero shooter developed by Respawn Entertainment, the creators of the Titanfall series.
The game launched in 2019 with a surprising shadow drop. At the time, Fortnite was enjoying incredible mainstream visibility both online and even across mainstream media. Late-night TV shows, morning news programs, and radio DJs around the world were discussing this incredibly popular video game that teenagers were obsessing over.
It’s no surprise that an enormous publisher like EA Games would make a push to imitate its success. It did so in a surprising way, however.
The game launched on February 4, 2019, with no marketing beforehand. Instead, EA Games worked directly with some of the biggest Fortnite-focused streamers at the time, including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. These Fortnite streamers were reportedly paid millions of dollars to showcase the competition, which proved to be a major success.
Official statements claimed that Apex Legends garnered millions of unique players within a day of its launch, and 25 million within its first week. In 2022, EA stated that the game had surpassed $2 billion in revenue throughout its lifespan.
Apex Legends sets itself apart with fast movement and action
Apex Legends combines gameplay elements from both the battle royale and hero shooter genres. The title is a first-person shooter where players are typically placed into a team of three. Teams air drop into a level that shrinks as the game progresses, and need to procure weapons and armor on site.
While this sounds very similar to Fortnite and PUBG: Battlegrounds, Apex Legends set itself apart by folding in hero shooter-style characters. Each playable character has a handful of abilities that can be used to help allies or harm enemies. These abilities varied wildly, ranging from tracking enemies’ footsteps to healing allies to launching one’s entire team into the sky to reposition.
Even in comparison to Fortnite, this made for a fast-paced gameplay experience. This was complemented by other mechanics.
Movement in Apex Legends was set apart by the ability to quickly scale obstacles, crouch, and slide down hills and stairs. This makes firefights quick and frantic.
Not only that, but the experience of allies being downed was significantly more dynamic. Downed players weren’t just forced to crawl; they had a shield they could use defensively or to help allies on offense. When a player is killed, they can be revived if allies interact with their body quickly enough and then interact with a respawn beacon. This mechanic wasn’t present in competing battle royales, and rewarded players for sticking around until the end of a game.
All this made for a highly engaging experience that maintained a strong place in the battle royale space.
Apex Legends popularity in flux after controversies
Though Apex Legends enjoyed an explosive launch and has generated billions of dollars in revenue, the game’s popularity has waned over time. EA Games doesn’t offer exact player count figures, nor do PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo. However, tracking services for Steam suggest that Apex Legends suffered a marked decline in its player count across 2023 and 2024.
The game hit an all-time peak on Steam in February 2023 with an average player count of 257,416 throughout the month, and a peak of 624,473, per Steam Charts. However, those numbers steeply declined in 2023, with those losses continuing into 2024 and 2025.
The exact reason is unclear, though the game has endured multiple major controversies.
Fans have long complained about the game’s loot box system, which forces completionists to spend a great deal of cash in order to acquire all the game’s premium skins. Complaints regarding hacking also came to a head publicly in 2024 when a hacker commandeered an Apex Legends esports event by injecting into competitors’ PCs.
Respawn also overhauled how the game’s battle pass system works, breaking up seasons into multiple parts while billing players for each part.
The game’s long-term future as one of the world’s most popular competitive games may be uncertain, but despite some questions, the game still remains one of the most popular live-service games in the world.
