EA’s Apex Legends is the latest title to try and steal the battle royale crown from Fortnite.
EA surprised many with the sudden announcement of Apex Legends, a new free-to-play battle royale shooter that sees the publisher going toe-to-toe with genre mammoths PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale.
Developed by Respawn Entertainment and set in the Titanfall universe, Apex Legends is a squad-based battle royale shooter where teams of three go up against 57 other players to try to gather loot and be the last person (or squad) standing.
However, unlike Fortnite and PUBG, Apex Legends sees players take on one of eight classes, each represented by a unique character. (Imagine Fortnite mixed with Overwatch and you’ll be on the right track.)
Whether that sounds like your kind of gaming or not, it’s clear Apex Legends is going from strength to strength. It managed to reach a million players in its first eight hours and it’s now amassed 10 million players in three days.
That’s good going. Really good going. Particularly when you consider that it took Fortnite two weeks (a fortnight!) to reach those same numbers. Similarly, it took Fortnite 24 hours to accrue a million players, compared to eight hours for EA’s shooter.
Do we have another Fortnite on our hands? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and instead let’s take a look at everything we know about Apex Legends.
[Update:Apex Legends has crossed the 50 million registered player mark.]
Apex Legends can be downloaded for free from the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Origin Store or Apex Legends website. Simply search for the title, download the game and enjoy!
But do keep in mind that a good internet connect and subscription to either PS Plus, Xbox Live or Origin Access is required to play.
The good news is that Apex Legends might also be coming to mobile. According to EA’s CEO, Andrew Wilson, it could soon be following in the footsteps of console-turned-mobile hits Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and coming to both Android and iOS devices in the not-so-distant future.
Apex Legends has crossed the 50 million registered player mark
By some estimates that makes the player base around a quarter of the size of the battle royale behemoth – and money printing machine – Fortnite, which had around 200 million players at last count, but also means that Apex Legends is catching up quickly.
Rumor: Gladiatorial ‘survival’ and player-stealing ‘recruit’ game modes
We could potentially see a new survival mode or a recruit mode, along with a kill camera feature, plus a couple of new playable characters (the eponymous Legends).
As spotted by @RealApexLeaks, there’s a reference to a ‘survival mode’ in the game’s files, although there are no details as to exactly what this may be. The only hint is that it involves a host NPC (non-player character), and possibly spectator NPCs, who could cheer players on, or sling emotes at them, giving the atmosphere more of a gladiatorial game show feel, presumably.
