Fortnite has become an empire of a game, dominating the battle royale genre. Epic Games revealed that Fortnite had 45 . million registered players across console and PC in just about four months, expanding to 200 million players registered in a year and a half as of last November.
But this week a new competitor has come out of nowhere into the market and it’s proved to be a serious contender.
Respawn Entertainment brings us: Apex legends.
Fortnite after seeing Apex Legends release out of no where!#ApexLegends pic.twitter.com/aZkSmLzBqj
— Kyle (@Zebrvs) February 5, 2019
Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game that’s available on console and PC. It’s had an explosively popular debut into the gaming world, with 10 million players registered within three days, and 25 million within one week. Respawn’s CEO also confirmed that there were “well over 2 million” concurrent players over the weekend in a post on Twitter.
Apex Legends has topped the Twitch charts since its release, overtaking Fortnite by more than double. This game is coming in hard and strong and is the first real threat Fortnite has faced in a while.
This past week has been beyond our wildest imagination. Thank you to all 25 million Legends out there. You too @shroud @drdisrespect @CouRageJD @FemSteph @Ninja and many more amazing creators out there! ❤️ https://t.co/8r1NBy9chf pic.twitter.com/BzY48xQm4V
— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) February 11, 2019
Apparently Respawn has a lot planned for Apex Legends in the very near future: an e-sports tournament kicking off today, a Valentine’s Day-themed loot drop, as well as the the start of its first season and the launch of its battle pass subscription due in March.
“Since we launched Apex Legends last week on Monday we’ve seen the creation of an Apex Legends community that is excited, thriving, and full of great feedback and ideas. Our goal is to build this game with you, our community, so keep giving us your feedback because we really are listening,” Respawn CEO Vince Zampella wrote in a blog post.
But according to The Verge, Apex Legends doesn’t have plans to expand into mobile accessibility just yet, which has been a part of Fortnite‘s success. So it will be interesting to see if Apex Legends continues to grow in popularity with such extreme momentum, and how it will fare against Fortnite’s domination in the battle royale space.