Apex Legends is taking the world by storm.
The battle royale made by EA Games is just a few days old, but has already made its presence felt. Strong support from popular streamers coupled with a free-to-play model has seen Apex Legends’ player count roar into seven digits within the space of a day.
According to Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella, it took the the game just eight hours to hit one million unique players, and things haven’t slowed since.
Speaking on a conference call, EA stated that the game reached 2.5 million users on its first day and peaked at 600,000 concurrent players, per industry analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter. Ahmad went on to note that Apex Legends is dominating Twitch viewership with a comfortable lead over Fortnite.
Developed by the team behind the Titanfall series, Apex Legends was revealed live on YouTube on February 4 with the game’s development kept a secret until its launch. Despite being a sequel to Titanfall 2, it leaves mechs behind in favor of different characters called “Legends” with unique skills and strengths. This makes for a game that combines elements of hero shooters like Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch with a grittier battle royale style similar to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
The game was launched simultaneously across PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. Though Apex Legends is free to play it has additional characters that must be unlocked using one of two in-game currencies, Legend Tokens or Apex Coins. These can be acquired by grinding for levels or with real cash. The two unlockable Legends, Caustic and Mirage, each cost $7.50 worth of Apex Coins.
Apex Legends does not currently support crossplay. Despite that, the game is quickly growing and already boasts a higher player count than PUBG.
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