The big picture: Bolstered by the explosive popularity of the battle royale genre, online streaming and competitive gameplay, few games have grown as quickly as Apex Legends. It's really been a perfect storm for Respawn and EA. One can only wonder if the momentum will continue or if a sudden shift will steer the community in a different direction.

Apex Legends set the gaming world on fire in February. Just one week after launch, the battle royale game from Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts managed to attract a staggering 25 million players.

In the three weeks that have since eclipsed, another 25 million gamers have come aboard, pushing the total player count north of 50 million. For a game that's been on the market for exactly one month, that's mind-boggling.

Respawn and EA confirmed the news this morning on Twitter.


Fortnite, by comparison, passed the 200 million registered user mark last November. Granted, it took more than a year for Epic to attract that many players. Apex Legends amassed a quarter of that number in just one month.

Even more impressive is the fact that Apex Legends is available on just three platforms - Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. Fortnite is also playable on those platforms as well as Android, iOS, macOS and Nintendo Switch.

A video accompanying the Twitter reveal highlighted a handful of player accomplishments including 170 million respawns activated, 31 billion pings placed, 158 million finishers used, 1.223 billion Ultimates activated and at least 16.5 million death box graveyards found. You can download Apex Legends here.