Respawn’s Apex Legends battle royale title was only announced recently and it has already grown to 50 million players. It’s still far from Fortnite’s lead in this genre but many were quick to brand it as a genuine competitor to Epic’s superhit title. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has basically said that contrary to popular belief, Apex Legends hasn’t really taken players away from Fortnite.
There’s a reason why people have been branding Apex Legends as a true Fortnite competitor. It hit 25 million players in seven days after launch while Fornite achieved the same milestone in 41 days. It took Fortnite four months to reach 50 million players, Apex did it in one month. Granted, the battle royale genre has a lot more interest now than it did back when Fortnite came out, so it has certainly reaped the benefits of the growth in this industry.
“We’re very close to hitting 250 million Fortnite players,” Sweeney told GamesBeat in an interview, adding that “Since Apex Legends came out, we’ve gained an Apex Legends worth of Fortnite players, which is amazing.”
Sweeney also said that the only game that really takes away players from Fortnite is FIFA. He pointed out that a Fortnite non-event peak has been hit twice since Apex Legends was released. “We haven’t seen any visible cut into Fortnite,” he reiterated, saying that “it’s a funny thing. The only game you can see where its peaks cut into Fortnite playtime is FIFA. It’s another game for everybody, wildly popular around the world.”
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