Apex Legends has been an immediate and resounding smash hit right out of the gates. The potential Fortnite killer was released on February 4, 2019, and the “it” free-to-play battle royale video game achieved over 25 million downloads and over 2 million concurrent players in one week after its release.
This is why people are getting positive on $EA — #ApexLegends is not just having a strong launch, it's having a significantly better launch than the most successful game in recent history. pic.twitter.com/4vANqkHJ5k
— Thomas Rice (@thomasrice_au) February 11, 2019
Apex Legends garnered an eye-opening 8.4 million hours of matches in one day during a Twitch Rivals event. That’s is over a million more hours than Fortnite‘s most successful single-day viewing numbers of all time that went down in July of 2018.
After you have read the infographic below, you won't be surprised to learn @PlayApex has recorded the best launch ever on @Twitch.#BattleRoyale #Viewerships #Impact pic.twitter.com/yJ7pQ3MDum
— GAMOLOCO (@Gamoloco) February 13, 2019
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When a game attracts this many people, it also attracts a ton of cheaters. Knowing full well how having cheaters obliterate honest gamers can have a negative effect, developers Respawn Entertainment are ready to stop the cheating early. Since the release of Apex Legends, Respawn has already banned 16,000 players for cheating.
“As of today, over 16,000 cheaters have been identified and banned from the game. Cheaters suck,” Respawn said in a statement on Reddit. “Even if you don’t get proof, get their ID and flag it and we can investigate the account. We have heard your feedback about a report feature in the game. I’ll just say that’s a very good idea.”
Is grandpa cheating?
Who's grandpa is this? 🤣
(via @Deneb1453) pic.twitter.com/3DDGB8IsyT
— Apex Legends News (@alphaINTEL) February 17, 2019
Apex Legends, which is published by Electronic Arts and set in the Titanfall universe, has caught the eye of professional gamer Ninja. However, Richard Tyler Blevins doesn’t think Apex Legends and Fortnite should be compared.
“It is not a question of Apex OR Fortnite,” Ninja said during a livestream on February 16. “[It’s] Apex AND Fortnite. I know this is crazy, but you can like more than one thing, alright?”
Ninja did acknowledge that he prefers Fortnite over Apex Legends. “Fortnite, in my opinion, is just a better game, because I just love it,” Ninja said. “It offers more right now because of the cross-platform. You can play with friends from wherever you are.”
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