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Apex Legends has hit 25 million players after one week

Apex Legends has hit 25 million players after one week

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Respawn’s new battle royale shooter is a certifiable hit

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Image: Respawn Entertainment

Apex Legends, the free-to-play battle royale game from the creators of Titanfall, has just passed 25 million registered players after just one week since its release, developer Respawn Entertainment announced this afternoon. The milestone shows just how explosively popular the game has become in such a short time; just three days after release, Apex Legends passed 10 million players. Additionally, the game recorded “well over” 2 million concurrent players this past weekend, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella noted on Twitter.

Now, of course, the game is free and available on consoles and PC, which makes these milestones not easily comparable to standard video game sales. But, compared with its biggest competitor Fortnite, Apex Legends would appear to be growing much faster, at least in this early stretch. Epic Games, the developers behind Fortnite, gave out the very first metrics for its battle royale hit in January 2018, when Fortnite had 45 million registered players across console and PC after roughly four months on the market.

Since then, Fortnite has ballooned in size, counting more than 200 million players as of November of last year thanks to its iOS and Android versions and its cross-platform and cross-progression features. Those are both elements that Apex Legends does not have plans to add any time soon, Respawn told me at a press event prior to the game’s launch. So we could see Apex Legends’ player count top off at some point because it won’t ever add smartphones to the mix.

Still, for a shooter with so much riding on its success given how much of a break in tradition it was for Respawn parent company EA, it’s surprising to see just how successful the game has been in just seven days. Respawn has a lot planned for Apex Legends in the coming weeks, including its first-ever e-sports tournament kicking off tomorrow, a Valentine’s Day-themed loot drop later this week, and the start of its first season and launch of its battle pass subscription in March.

“Since we launched Apex Legends last week on Monday we’ve seen the creation of an Apex Legends community that is excited, thriving, and full of great feedback and ideas. Our goal is to build this game with you, our community, so keep giving us your feedback because we really are listening,” Zampella wrote in a blog post announcing the milestone.