Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends player count is already achieving impressive numbers, with the Battle Royale and Hero Shooter hybrid hitting one million players in less than 8 hours. Apex Legends reaching this number of players early on is promising for a game that launched with somewhat of a surprise. Rumors had been swirling that something was to come yesterday. A long and arduous livestream eventually came and concluded with the announcement of the game.
CEO of Respawn Entertainment, Vince Zampella, broke the news of the game reaching over a million via Twitter (via Reddit). Zampella tweeted:
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
Apex Legends offers players a new take on the battle royale genre by way of the Titanfall universe, made popular by Respawn. In the game, you team up with two other players and have a choice of up to eight “Legends.” The characters are an eclectic bunch and offer a range of abilities for players to tinker with.
The interest in the game itself and the reception to it remain strong, but an underlying disappointment still remains. Apex Legends now appears to have come at the expense of Titanfall 3. Respawn Entertainment has built up an amount of consumer goodwill following the first two Titanfall games, so it makes sense why some are fearful about this game. Players’ faith in the EA-owned studio does seem to have also led many to give this new title a chance, especially judging by these initial figures.
Despite reaching this milestone early on, the longevity of the game will depend on how Respawn addresses issues which popular games like Fortnite and Overwatch have faced for a long time. Almost immediately there was discussion over Respawn’s use of microtransactions in the game with two characters locked behind purchases if you want to play them immediately. Vince Zampella stated during the livestream that there would be more characters to come.
