A new battle royale game has attracted more than 25 million players after just one week of being released, prompting comparisons to the rapid rise of the hit video game Fortnite. Apex Legends, which is free to download on PS4, Xbox One and PC platforms, features similar gameplay to Fortnite but is outpacing the record-breaking growth of the gaming sensation. “What a week! 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,” Vince Zampella, CEO of Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, wrote in a blog post announcing the milestone. “Since last Monday, more than 25 million players have jumped into the game, and over the weekend we had well over 2 million concurrent players at our peak. Like I said earlier, what a week!” By comparison, Fortnite took two weeks to hit a relatively modest 10 million players. 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Epic Games co-founder Mark Rein, whose studio is developed Fortnite, has even been drawn into playing Apex Legends, much to the delight of Mr Zampella. In response to a comment on Twitter that recommended he played Apex Legends, Mr Rein said: “I tried it.” When asked if he liked it, he replied: “Yes it’s very good!” In response, Mr Zampella wrote: “Means a lot coming from you Mark! I believe I owe you drinks next time we meet up!” Apex Legends has a number of plans to build the game over the coming weeks, according to Mr Zampella, including the launch of a tournament featuring 48 of the biggest Twitch streamers. The Twitch Rivals Apex Legends Challenge will take place on 12 February and 19 February, streamed directly to the Apex Legends Twitch channel. Season One of the game will also begin next month, which will see the intoduction of new characters, weapons, loot and challenges. “The community’s excitement for Apex Legends is electric, and we feel it here at the studio,” the Respawn Entertainment CEO wrote. “We couldn’t have gotten where we are without you and look forward to having you on this journey with us.”<doc-sep>Game publisher Electronic Arts has a sudden megahit on its hands with "Apex Legends," a free Battle Royale game for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. In less than a week, over 25 million people played "Apex Legends" — a much faster growth rate than even "Fortnite." There's no sign of "Apex" slowing down, and one chart perfectly demonstrates just how fast the game went from unknown to wildly popular. It's hard to overstate how explosively popular "Apex Legends" has been. The free Battle Royale game launched on February 4, and — less than a week later — over 25 million people had already played it. During the game's first weekend, it had "well over 2 million concurrent players" at one point. But all of those are just abstract numbers without additional context, and this chart from Australian financial portfolio manager Thomas Rice offers exactly that: As you can see above, "Apex Legends" grew from nothing to 25 million players in just seven days. For "Fortnite" to achieve the same growth, it took 41 days. To be clear, "Fortnite" also grew rapidly. Like "Apex Legends," the Battle Royale mode of "Fortnite" was free at launch in September 2017. It was only available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC — also like "Apex" — before expanding to Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices across the following year. Simply put: Comparing the two games is relatively straightforward, and EA's "Apex Legends" is already off to a stronger start than the biggest gaming phenomenon since "Minecraft." Pretty impressive! There was a sharp increase following the launch of "Apex Legends" on February 4. EA/Google It's no surprise that EA's stock price reflects the wild, sudden success of "Apex Legends." The game is the first hit from EA in quite some time, and its first straight-up blockbuster in the past several years. Recent entries in the "Battlefield" and "Star Wars Battlefront" series have failed to meet critical and commercial expectations, and the publisher has become more and more reliant on its annual sports games in the "FIFA" and "Madden" franchises. With "Apex Legends," EA has a bonafide hit on its hands — and there's no sign of it slowing down. Check out the latest video from the game's creator, Respawn Entertainment, below:<doc-sep>Electronic Arts is under enormous pressure. The company’s stock has tumbled in the wake of news of a troubled Star Wars game and a weak showing from Battlefield 5, and investors are growing restless. That’s likely why EA is taking the risk of cannibalizing its own success with the release of Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends, a free-to-play battle royale shooter. EA’s roadmap was straightforward as of last week: Anthem in February, and a major Battlefield 5 update, with the long-awaited Firestorm battle royale mode, in March. The surprise launch of Apex Legends upends that plan. Early feedback on Respawn’s new game is overwhelmingly positive. More than a million players logged in during the first eight hours, with 2.5 million playing in the first 24 hours. That number then jumped to 10 million players in the first three days. Apex Legends took Twitch by storm, thanks to popular streamers like Shroud and Dr. Disrespect playing the game. Even Fortnite poster boy Ninja is playing, and streaming, Apex Legends. The problem is that there are only so many hours in the day, and players will only spend those hours playing a limited number of shooters. EA isn’t just competing with its rivals by launching two games that appeal to similar audiences as many of the other February releases do; it’s also competing against itself. Every day matters Apex Legends is part of a bold strategy. A stand-alone, AAA, free-to-play battle royale game is a risk, even from a studio as respected as Respawn. But solid gameplay, an early bump from influencers, and features that set it apart from other battle royale games show that Apex Legends could have staying power. It might even be enough to stand tall against Fortnite. A game like Apex Legends doesn’t come together overnight. Respawn told Polygon that it saw PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds blowing up in 2017, and designed Apex Legends to capitalize on the growing battle royale trend. It was an opportunity to make a mark in a genre that was still finding its footing. Since then, battle royale hasn’t just taken off; it has solidified, with clear market leaders that have pulled away from the pack. In July 2018, analytics firm SuperData noted that executives were finally willing to admit what everyone else in the industry already knew: Fortnite was starting to eat into traditional game sales. Notably, this was just three months after Epic launched the game on iOS. The opportunity Fortnite posed when Respawn started development also now comes with a downside: Apex Legends is casting a long shadow. Apex Legends taking off would be great news for EA, in a vacuum. But with Anthem only two weeks away, the popularity of Apex Legends could jeopardize the launch of BioWare’s first game since the underwhelming Mass Effect: Andromeda. Most companies wouldn’t release a surprise free-to-play shooter in the middle of promoting another high-profile online game, but EA isn’t most companies. There are a number of possibilities for how this will shake out: Apex Legends holds onto its audience, with Respawn essentially convincing a portion of the audience to hold off on purchasing Anthem. The result could be another blow to investor confidence, says SuperData co-founder Joost van Dreunen. “EA is looking for a win in the shooter category so I expect them to go in guns blazing,” van Dreunen says. “But given how many of its investors still look for the total unit sales immediately following its release as a yardstick for the firm’s overall success, it may shoot itself in the foot by maneuvering in such a small space.” Anthem draws as strong audience as it might have without Apex Legends, but keeps players away from Respawn’s battle royale game. This would reduce player count and microtransaction spending, the lifeblood of free-to-play games, for Apex Legends. Given the game’s early success, EA would have to take its hands off the wheel entirely for this to happen. Everything works out as EA hopes, and Apex Legends and Anthem build their own large, dedicated audiences without hurting each other’s chances for success. Option No. 3 isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but history provides reason for concern. EA made a mistake when it released Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 just one week apart in a crowded holiday season in 2016. CEO Andrew Wilson was confident about the decision at the time. “We believe that Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2, while they have some overlap, fulfill very different motivations in what a player is looking for,” Wilson said during an earnings call. “So we think there are really three types of players: people that really love Battlefield, and that type of big strategic gameplay that will orient in that direction; the player that loves the fast, fluid, kinetic gameplay of Titanfall 2 and really orients in that direction; and the player that just has to play the two greatest shooters this year and will buy both.” Fast-forward to an earnings call on Jan. 31, 2017, when EA announced that Titanfall 2 fell short of sales expectations. EA’s current situation is a bit different. Anthem has no competitive multiplayer mode, and Apex Legends does not offer a single-player experience. But they’re still competing for players’ time. That’s compounded by stiff competition elsewhere: Deep Silver’s Metro Exodus, Microsoft’s Crackdown 3, and Ubisoft’s Far Cry New Dawn all drop in February as well. And there’s one more potential casualty of EA’s decision to release Apex Legends this month. The coming Firestorm Battlefield 5 is getting its own take on the battle royale genre, called Firestorm, in March. Firestorm missed the game’s October launch, but in exchange, it gives EA an opportunity to resurface Battlefield 5 this spring for new players and recapture those who have lapsed. “Audiences tend to be more loyal to a category or genre than a specific franchise,” van Dreunen says. “Consequently, it is possible that Apex eats into BF5’s battle royale mode.” Battlefield 5 is already in a tough spot. It’s telling that all EA had to say about the game in its third-quarter earnings release this week is that ... it was released. Comparatively, here’s what EA had to say after Battlefield 1’s debut: “Battlefield 1 was our biggest Battlefield launch ever and has a player base more than 50% larger than that of Battlefield 4 in its comparable launch quarter.” It’s not what EA is saying about Battlefield 5; it’s what it isn’t saying. There’s no praise or glowing stats. Acquiring and retaining players is going to be harder than it has been in years past for the Battlefield franchise, especially for the first entry to launch without a traditional season pass. Wooing new players to a premium game with a battle royale mode is a tougher proposition when you’re offering another game in the genre for free. The road to March 31 Chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen summed up EA’s biggest challenge on Tuesday’s call, suggesting that the publisher faced “unprecedented competition for players’ time.” That challenge isn’t changing anytime soon, and EA now has two brand-new games in similar genres vying for attention. The competition for players’ time will only become more crucial as publishers put greater importance on monthly active users over initial sales. Getting players to boot up a game regularly creates emotional investment, which leads to recurrent in-game spending. The developers of these games must accrue players quickly, and find ways to keep them playing. There’s no reason to purchase a skin for a game you may never return to. EA needs to retain the players flirting with Apex Legends for the long term if it wants to monetize them. Too often, new games see a large audience at launch, as a sort of “vacation” from the franchises that players are actually invested in. “Free-to-play titles that initially draw a large crowd — with or without the help of a string of tastemakers promoting it — eventually see players return to their preferred franchises,” van Dreunen explains. “For one, because of the social layer in many games, switching costs are increasingly high.<doc-sep>
It’s a good time to be a fan of competitive gaming. This week is going to be absolutely packed with things to watch, with a range of competitions spread out across some of the hottest games in the world. In fact, it’s likely one of the busiest e-sports weeks of the year, despite the fact that we’re still only in February. The major events include the debut of the Overwatch League’s second season, a secretive Fortnite tournament that could provide a glimpse at the game’s upcoming World Cup, and the very first Apex Legends competition. It’s a lot to keep track of. Here’s what’s coming up and how to follow it all. Twitch Rivals Apex Legends Challenge February 12th and 19th Apex Legends just launched last week, but the game has already proved to be a huge hit, carving out its own space in the busy battle royale genre. And while we don’t have anything resembling a professional competitive circuit for the game just yet, you can get an idea of what it’ll be like in the latest Twitch Rivals event. The tournament — a collaboration between Twitch and Apex developer Respawn — will feature 48 streamers divided into 16 three-person squads and a prize pool of $200,000. Big-name battle royale players like DrDisrespect and Myth will be among the participants. The event will be spread across two days: it debuts on February 12th and then continues on the 19th. According to Twitch, streamers will be representing North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. And much like in Fortnite tournaments, entrants will earn points for winning matches and getting kills. (You can check out the rules in more detail here.) Given that this is the first proper Apex Legends competition, it might be a little messy, but it should provide an early glimpse at the game’s potential for high-level play. Fortnite Secret Skirmish February 14th–15th Competitive Fortnite has been something of a work in progress since last summer, with developer Epic trying different ideas and formats. It’s almost like an e-sports beta. The ultimate goal, it seems, is the upcoming Fortnite World Cup, of which we currently know nothing. But there’s a good chance we’ll have a clearer picture after this week. Starting on February 14th, Epic is kicking off a two-day competition called Secret Skirmish. As the name implies, there’s much we don’t know about it. There will be 100 competitors and a total of $500,000 in prizes, but the format is still a mystery. Thursday will begin with a duos competition at 1PM PT before a still-unannounced competition at 6:30PM. Friday will follow the same schedule, only with solo in place of duos for the lead battle. What makes the Secret Skirmish particularly interesting, however, is that Epic says it will take place “at an undisclosed testing facility.” Aside from an E3 tournament at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, all of the major Fortnite events have taken place online. It seems likely that we’ll see a proper, dedicated studio or arena at Secret Skirmish that could potentially be home to the World Cup. Overwatch League season 2, week 1 February 14th–17th Blizzard’s ambitious e-sports league is returning, and there are a lot of changes in store for season 2. The Overwatch League has expanded from 12 to 20 teams, it features a more condensed schedule to ease the strain on players, and it will begin experimenting with home and away matches throughout the season. For all-access subscribers, there’s also a robust tool for viewing matches from different angles and perspectives. Just like in season 1, all OWL matches are available to watch for free on Twitch, but the league has also expanded its viewing options quite a bit. You can watch every game within the ESPN app, for instance, and three matches per week will air on Disney XD. Blizzard also says that “select” games will air on ABC and ESPN2, including the stage finals and all-star game. Kicking things off will be a rematch of last season’s championship game, with the London Spitfire taking on the Philadelphia Fusion at 7PM ET on February 14th, which will be followed by the typically dominating New York Excelsior against the Boston Uprising. The next day, meanwhile, will be a great chance to see some of the brand-new teams, with Toronto, Atlanta, Chengdu, and Guangzhou all in action for the first time.