Apex Legends Is Growing Four Times Faster Than Fortnite

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and while Fortnite has borrowed a number of gameplay elements from the so-hot-right-now Apex Legends (see: the ping system), the latter shooter is really beginning to stake its claim for the pixelated throne. And fast.

Figures published over on Twitter have revealed that Apex Legends‘ growth rate is currently four times faster than that of Fortnite. After only 8 hours, the Respawn title pulled in a staggering 1 million players, and those numbers have been on the rise ever since – so much so, in fact, that Apex was at 50 million strong by four weeks. To put that astronomical growth into perspective, it took Fortnite a full 16 weeks to hit 45 million, which only goes to show just how competitive and frantic the Battle Royale genre has become.

Via Twitter:

Number of Apex Legends players after:

8 hours – 1m
1 day – 2.5m
3 days – 10m
1 week – 25m
4 weeks – 50m

Number of Fortnite BR players after:

2 weeks – 10m
6 weeks – 20m
11 weeks – 30m
16 weeks – 45m

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) March 4, 2019

To its credit, Fortnite helped bring Battle Royale to the masses, and its continued success (i.e. the recent launch of season 8 and all of the content it brings) has allowed Epic Games to rake in a small fortune to the tune of $3 billion since its new IP debuted. That’s all well and good, but there’s no question that Apex Legends is beginning cement its place at the forefront of the online gaming scene. The onus is really on Respawn to rustle up a steady stream of content so that Apex is supported far into the future, otherwise it’ll quickly lose its momentum.

But at least so far, the post-launch support for Apex Legends has been pretty solid, indicating that Respawn is fully committed to the road ahead. Because let’s face it, no one – and we really mean no one – predicted 50 million users after just four weeks. The challenge now is to keep that audience happy and engaged.