It has indeed come to this: EA and Respawn’s quietly-released game that’s basically PUBG done right has a bigger player base than that one EA game that requires you to pay money for a Destiny-like experience with flying. How big? Try 50 million.

Within a month, it has topped most triple-A games that came out last year during the first four weeks.

$EA has a certified hit on its hands. #ApexLegends continues to grow it’s player count at a faster rate than Fortnite’s launch.

50 million in 28 days. pic.twitter.com/RagPU99T9i

— Roundhill Investments (@roundhill) March 4, 2019

For comparison’s sake, Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode took several months to reach the 45 million players mark. That tidbit isn’t indicative of Apex Legends’ quick success; keep in mind the following:

• Fortnite is currently at 200 million plus players at this point, and only picked up momentum during the middle of 2018 because of its focus and marketing on the battle royale mode and its many seasons.
• PUBG is sitting at 400+ million players since its boom last year. The game also sold 50 million copies. Those numbers also factor in the game’s mobile version as well.

So how did Apex Legends get its numbers? This may be due to how fun the game is among streamers, pros, the three-man team in a battle royale game dynamic, and the fact that it’s created by people who made a lot of multiplayer shooters pre-EA buyout. Remember the older Call of Duty and Medal of Honor games? That was from Respawn veterans, FYI.

Plus, people needed to get away from the two main battle royale games for something fresh. It’s not like we’re in a dystopia where we’re only allowed to play just one battle royale game.

If Apex Legends can get more than 500 million players by the end of 2019 by keeping the game alive with fresh new updates and content, heck even 200 million before Winter, then I’d be impressed. In any case, the battle royale fever is not dying out anytime soon.