After a weekend rumors and leaks, things escalated quickly after Respawn Entertainment surprised everyone when it launched Apex Legends the following Monday, Feb. 4.
Now, the new battle royale game seems to be living up to the hype. During its first day, the game's performance exceeded expectations and drew in over a million unique players and more.
Starting Strong
After Apex Legends was revealed earlier this week, it quickly went past the 1 million marker just less than eight hours after going live, Vince Zampella, Respawn's CEO, said in a tweet Tuesday.
I’m so overwhelmed right now, @PlayApex broke a million unique players in under 8 hours. ️️️ Thank you so much for showing up and being part of this with @Respawn you are amazing!! pic.twitter.com/lvNgfwwKhl — Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) February 5, 2019
This number almost tripled within the day, garnering a total of over 2.5 million unique players in just 24 hours. Apex Legends' peak recorded nearly 600,000 concurrent players, proving that the game is indeed starting strong.
The game also nabbed the number 1 spot on Twitch, reaching a peak of around 500,000 viewers.
During Electronic Arts' post-earnings conference call, CEO Andrew Wilson discussed the game's success, also saying that "[t]he Respawn team has a strong plan for Apex Legends that will engage fans for a long time to come." Wilson also said that they expect to pull in "hundreds of millions" of Apex players in the future.
Apex Legends Cross-Play
Apex Legends is EA and Respawn's entry to the battle royale space. As it's also a free-to-play game, it's expected to take on Fortnite in the future — assuming the game's success continues.
As to the future of Apex Legends, Respawn's lead producer Drew McCoy said that plans of cross-platform play are already in the pipeline. Players won't be able to share cross-progression and cross-purchases, though, and "will never be possible due to the way systems were set up early on."
Apex Legends is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One
Another Titanfall game is expected this year, based on a teaser from Zampella. Respawn is also eyeing to release a Star Wars game sometime later this year.
