Apex Legends has been well-received by fans and has brought millions to the free-to-play battle royale game. Respawn Entertainment announced that Apex Legends player count hit 10 million within 72 hours of launch, and over 1 million players were in the game at the same time.
In a blog post from earlier today, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella announced the milestone.
“This has been a truly incredibly journey,” he stated. “We tested and tweaked. We argued and agreed. We got to a point where we felt some magic. We knew it would be risky to take the franchise in this direction, to go free to play, and do a surprise launch. But we fell in love with Apex Legends and wanted, needed, other people to play it too.”
Zampella went on to express thanks to fans of their games, and anybody who has given Apex Legends a chance. The game reached 1 million unique players within eight hours of launch, and 2.5 million yesterday. Yesterday also saw the game hit 600,000 concurrent players.
Respawn and EA surprise launched Apex Legends on Monday, February 4 after countdown stream that stretched over multiple hours. Information about the game had leaked over the weekend, as several events were held the prior week to prep press and influencers on the game.
After the game’s reveal, news came that a more traditional Titanfall sequel was not in development. Unlike those games, Apex Legends does not feature Titans or wall-running that were core to their identity and gameplay. Instead, Apex Legends focuses on strong gunplay and unique player characters that feature abilities. As a result, the free-to-play battle royale game is a mix of Titanfall, Overwatch, and Fortnite.
The game has been well-received by players, with the game’s subreddit lighting up with clips and positive feedback from fans. Some haven’t taken as kindly to the game’s loot box focused microtransactions, and the game locking two characters behind paywalls (or a lot of playtime).
