It’s no secret that Electronic Arts chose to go with a stealth launch when introducing Apex Legends to the gaming industry.
The Respawn-developed shooter arrived with little fanfare – no promotion, no pre-order bonuses… nada – and still, the entire community flocked to Apex Legends once word began to spread. Suffice it to say, the battle royale title became an overnight sensation, and even got a helping hand from Fortnite extraordinaire Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, who reportedly earned $1 million for doing so.
Yes, as you may have heard, Blevins was one of the few Twitch streamers who were chosen to help EA launch the game. Their mission? To play and promote it as much as possible, which resulted in 10 million signups in the first three days, during which time Ninja streamed Apex to over 13.6 million followers. This, coupled with various sponsored posts across social media gave Apex Legends the exposure boost it needed and now, we’re hearing that it enjoyed the best launch month of any free-to-play game.
SuperData Research has done the analysis and found that Respawn’s latest effort generated $92 million in its first month alone. And even though Fortnite still outgrossed it in February, that figure is enough to give Apex Legends the most successful launch month in the genre.
“Apex Legends has the best launch month of any free-to-play game in history. Apex Legends generated an estimated $92 million from in-game spending across all platforms, with the majority coming from console,” SuperData Research said about Apex Legends’ launch. “Despite this, Fortnite still came in above Apex Legends in the top grossing rankings.”
So, while Apex Legends is currently the shooter of the moment, its reign may not last forever. After all, we’ve already heard that players consider its in-game economy to be unfair, and the first Battle Pass didn’t exactly go over too well with fans, either. Fortnite, on the other hand, has built a sustainable business model in which you can purchase some truly wonderful and at-times hilarious cosmetic items for a very fair price.
Then again, Apex Legends is still in the process of finding its feet, and given how dedicated Respawn is to the game, we imagine they’ll be able to smooth out all the rough patches in due time.