It’s no secret that Electronic Arts opted for a stealth launch when introducing Apex Legends to the world.
The Respawn-developed shooter arrived with little fanfare – no promotion, no pre-order bonuses… nada – and yet, the entire gaming community flocked to Apex Legends once word began to spread. Suffice it to say, the game blew up overnight, albeit with a helping hand from Fortnite extraordinaire Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins, who may have earned as much as $1 million for doing so.
Per Reuters, Blevins was one of the few selected Twitch streamers who partnered with EA during the launch of Apex Legends. Their mission? To play and promote Respawn’s title, resulting in 10 million signups in the first three days, during which time Ninja streamed Apex to his 13.6 million-plus Twitch followers. This, coupled with the sponsored posts on Twitter and Instagram – where Blevins presides over 4 million and 13.2 million followers, respectively – reportedly netted him around $1 million, and gave Apex Legends the exposure boost EA so craved.
Since the advent of YouTube and social media influencers, it’s become common practice for video game developers to partner with content creators (i.e. Ninja) in order to stoke excitement for a new release. And, to his credit, Ninja has always been transparent when dealing with sponsored content.
Nevertheless, a seven-figure sum only underlines the increasingly cutthroat business of the battle royale genre, with Apex Legends and Fortnite both competing for absolute dominance. The latter still boasts a player base north of 200 million, and continues to roll out fresh content packs (read: the pirate-themed season 8) in order to retain its global audience.
But in five short weeks, Apex Legends quickly established itself as a worthy pretender to the Twitch throne. And there’s no telling where things go from here.
