Apex Legends has been a smash hit success since its release in February. Raking in over 50 million players less-than a month after its release, EA and Respawn had created a battle royale capable of challenging Fortnite’s domination.
The game managed to rival Fortnite in every statistic during its initial release with a number of fans watching streams nearly doubling those of Fortnite. However, little under three months after its release, the game’s popularity seems to be vanishing, and the once great Fortnite challenger seems to be fading into oblivion.
Analysts believe Apex Legends isn’t the cash-cow that EA originally envisioned. According to Seeking Alpha, Twitch viewership, a number of big-name streamers and Google searches of the game have dropped dramatically, citing many of the big names in streaming have switched back to Fortnite. They also predict that the overall value the game may bring in anywhere between USD 1.8 to USD 2.4 billion as opposed to the initial USD 7.4 billion prediction.
So, what exactly sparked this decline?
For one, Apex Legends is a pretty solid battle royale with excellent fundamentals and fantastic gameplay. But that’s also part of the problem; Apex Legends has only introduced one new gun and a new Legends since its launch as opposed to Fortnite that brings in fresh updates every week. The game hasn’t really changed since its launch; there's just one mode and one map with the only major change coming in the form of monetisation through the underwhelming battle pass.
Another reason could be that Fortnite has been able to lure some of the big streamers and pro players back as Epic is drowning players in potential Fortnite World Cup cash. Epic’s Fortnite USD 100 million esports prize pool for 2019 is something no game can think of competing with. Not only does Epic throw Fortnite tournaments every week giving out anywhere between USD 50,000 to USD 1 million in prize money, not to mention the USD 30 million prize pool for the Fortnite World Cup. EA and Respawn, on the other hand, seem to have already exhausted their marketing budget.
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