Will the new battle royale game “Apex” dethrone “Fortnite”?

Kolby Spomer
Staff Writer

Last year, “Fortnite” took over gaming worldwide. The free-to-play model, usage and acceptance of memes, and support of popular streamers like Ninja resulted in the game gaining an unprecedented amount of revenue, totaling over $2 billion on the year.

However, a new game has appeared out of seemingly nowhere with hopes of stealing the throne out from under the juggernaut. 

“Apex Legends”, developed by “Titanfall” developer Respawn Entertainment, has seemingly taken note of what made “Fortnite” such a big hit as they used the free-to-play model and streamer influence schemes to full effect.

Announced and released on the same day, publisher EA helped move the project along by advertising the project in seemingly guerilla fashion. The company paid popular “Fortnite” streamers to play their game instead, and as a result got the target audience to see exactly what was being offered. The response to the game was universally positive, as the game has accumulated 25 million players.

At its peak thus far, the young game garnered 2 million concurrent players. In comparison, “Fortnite” had only 1 million players total in its first month. 

The biggest difference between the games, however, isn’t found in statistics or dollar signs. “Apex” is a smoother, better-developed shooter. While “Fortnite” has its charms, to some, “Apex” plays much like a modern first-person shooter with small excentricities sprinkled in like interesting character abilities and the sliding mechanic. 

To be fair to “Fortnite”, the game laid quite a bit of groundwork for “Apex”. While “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds” is seen as the first real big battle royale focused game, “Fortnite” is the real reason as to why it is a new gaming genre entirely. Every game from “Call of Duty” to “Tetris” has adopted the game mode in some capacity.

“Fortnite” looks to be losing players to “Apex”, despite its historic statistics and record-breaking fiscal year. The game’s player base is down nearly 48 percent this month, and a large part of that is attributed to “Apex” emerging as a legitimate contender. 

With all of this in mind, will “Apex” really overtake “Fortnite”? In my unprofessional opinion, no, it will not. “Fortnite” has a big advantage on “Apex”, and it is the kid friendly aspect. Not only will parents see the cartoon features and “fun” dances as more child appropriate, but kids will see these features and chose it instead as well. So, for now, expect both games to co-exist for a while. 

Feature photo courtesy of Flickr.