Apex Legends had a staggering launch that put it on top in just about every metric that can measure a game’s success. But that momentum has slowed over just a few months, and the game’s revenue has slipped to match. Respawn’s battle royale is only making a quarter of what it did back in February – a big dip from the best launch in free-to-play history.
The game made $24 million in April, as SuperData reports (via Eurogamer). That’s no small amount of money, but it is a massive dip from the game’s launch revenue of $92 million. A 74% dip in revenue over the space of two months is certainly cause for concern, especially given what it likely means for the Apex Legends player count – over 50 million, at one point.
Apex Legends is by no means dead, but its position as a Fortnite-killer is looking much more uncertain. The game’s updates haven’t been as frequent as Fortnite’s, and the new content that has launched – like the Apex Legends battle pass – hasn’t been super well-received by the community.
Popular streamers have said much the same. Dr Disrespect said he was bored of the game’s lack of content over two months ago, and warns that it could follow the downward path of H1Z1.
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Respawn says there’s plenty of upcoming content for Apex Legends in the works, and the team is growing. Tales of Fortnite crunch, including 100-hour weeks, suggest there’s a dark price to pushing out too much content for a game too quickly – but it seems that Apex Legends’ future success will ride on the quality and frequency of further update.