Apex Legends is the hot new battle royale game from Respawn Entertainment, the makers of Titanfall, and it’s totally free to play… or is it? While PC owners can freely play the game through EA’s Origin client, what about PS4 owners? A lot of people own PlayStation Plus, but not everyone wants or needs it, so what about playing Apex Legends on PS Plus? Do you need PS Plus to play Apex Legends, or can you play on PS4 without it, free of any sort of subscription service? We’ve got the answers for you.
Do you need PS Plus to play Apex Legends?
Generally speaking, PS Plus is required for almost all multiplayer games on PS4, with just a few major exceptions. You can play single-player games and download DLC content easily without any sort of PS Plus account, but most games need the service if you want to play the online multiplayer side, such as in Call of Duty or Battlefield.
However, there’s good news when it comes to Apex Legends, since we can confirm that you do not need a PS Plus account in order to download and play the game online. It’s truly free-to-play, so the only charges you’ll encounter are optional microtransactions for character upgrades and cosmetic looks, such as skins.
Why is Apex Legends PS Plus not required?
This would certainly require intervention by EA, who must have talked to Sony in order to get Apex Legends on the list of multiplayer games that can be played without PS Plus. Mostly, however, it’s to do with a little game called Fortnite. Fortnite is the current king of the battle royale genre, and not only is it free-to-play in a similar way as Apex Legends, it’s also playable online without a PS Plus subscription. Clearly, in order to compete with Fortnite, Apex Legends would need to offer a similar deal, so it’s fortunate that EA managed to swing that. It’s good news, anyway.