These are dark and difficult times for Apex Legends.
Respawn’s battle royale phenom has struggled to keep hold of its dwindling viewership in recent months, and new data from Stream Elements has confirmed that Apex stream views have dropped 75 percent in just four weeks. Fortnite‘s viewers, however, remained stable over the six-week period.
During its heyday, when Apex Legends amassed 50 million players in record time, the Respawn title was hyped up as a pretender to the Twitch throne, and while there was a brief period when Apex surpassed Fortnite (and just about every other game on Twitch), it’s looking increasingly likely that the wheels are beginning to fall off.
Don’t believe us? Here’s the data from Stream Elements, which clearly shows that Fortnite has always hovered around that 20 million mark.
The question, really, is whether EA set itself up for failure. Cast your mind back to Apex‘s much-hyped February launch and you’ll remember a number of top streamers – Ninja included – promoting the new IP for all its worth, leading to a surge in traffic. But that traffic wasn’t organic, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Apex‘s viewership has fallen off a cliff ever since the industry’s top streamers migrated elsewhere.
That’s certainly the view of analyst Seeking Alpha, who published a report of Apex Legends, its market performance, and why EA is now bracing for a significant financial loss.
Honestly, we believe the criticisms of these influencers should be taken very seriously. They not only have the power to generate interest and maintain interest for a game, but they also are veteran gamers, and have seen many games both live and die. They know the market far, far better than most investors.
But what say you? Is Apex Legends going the way of PUGB? Or will Respawn’s shooter bounce back over the coming months, even as Fortnite reigns supreme? You can, as always, chime in with your own thoughts and predictions in the usual place.