Four months on from the unprecedented success of Apex Legends‘ initial launch, the future for Respawn’s battle royale is looking increasingly bleak. Is Kings Canyon on the cusp of being wiped out by armageddon? Unlikely, but new figures released today certainly aren’t painting the picture of a healthy, growing player base. In fact, if research conducted by SuperData is any indication, Apex‘s player population is likely but a fraction of the remarkable 50 million figure recorded shortly after launch.
As per the site’s recent roundup of last month’s top-grossing games, the beleaguered shooter is acknowledged with little more than a footnote – the perfect analogy to its continued failure to maintain relevance in a genre dominated by Epic Games’ ever-popular Fortnite. Throughout the entirety of April, Respawn’s squad-based shooter generated $24 million. In a vacuum, it’s an impressive figure for a title that’s pushing the half-year mark, but compared to February? The numbers aren’t even close.
In fairness, exceeding or even matching the record profits generated back in February was never a realistic outcome, but a decline of this magnitude will surely sound the alarm for EA. The publisher has weathered a storm produced by several high profile failures recently, not least BioWare’s looter shooter Anthem, which has suffered one controversy after another. Likewise, with Apex having pulled in just over one-quarter of its launch month revenue in April, there appears to be no end in sight to its troubles.
There’s still time to right the ship, however. With quality of life patches continuing to roll out on a regular basis and Season 2 earmarked for a reveal during next month’s E3, there’s every chance for Apex Legends to claw back its millions of lapsed players or even entice a horde of fresh-faced newbies into joining the fun.
Should Season 2 fail to impress, however, recovery might simply be an unreachable goal. Fingers crossed that’s not the final outcome.
Published: May 22, 2019 10:00 am