What's Happening To Apex Legends - Is The Momentum Over?

Apex Legends was contender for biggest game of 2019, but now it seems to be just another battle royale. What happened to its industry-shaking views?

[Alek83]

Yes. I enjoyed it for a while, sadly went back to Fortnite.

[RangerWalk267]

Then you must be under the age of 13

[AcidDvl]

Let him enjoy whatever he enjoys. Don't be an ass.

[No Way]

Insulting someone for something they enjoy - are you offended?

[FlyingFoxy]

Probably a fad, sheep seem to be fond of them, i rarely play stuff like that.

[KyRo]

Battle Royal games are huge and are not going anywhere. The problem with apex is that they ain't adding or doing enough to keep people playing. The season 1 pass was lackluster and and updates are few and far between. Its the downfall of every BR game though because they can't focus all their engery on it like epic does with fortnite.

[TimelessDbz]

Saving everything for e3 week.

[PhantomS42]

Battle Royale are definitely starting to fall in popularity. They either die immediately or get to Fortnite/Apex levels of popularity and start to lose players because the entire gameplay loop is extremely dull. They would die off fast if they weren't free to play, that is literally the only thing that keeps them in the spotlight.

[Parasidious]

Despite it's social media presence declining there a still millions playing Apex everyday.

[deno]

These types of games are made for addicts and video game gamblers. No sane or normal individual is going to spend hours and real money on weapons skins, some dumb old outfit. What a sad life of priorities.

[MrChow666]

Whatever...

[BQ32]

Or maybe they just have fun playing the game. I've put a hundred hours in at least and still haven't spent a dime. Almost feel a bit guilty to be honest lol.

[No Way]

What's it matter? Some people spend thousands of dollars on plates that they will never use - just for decoration.

[Jin_Sakai]

“Probably a fad, sheep seem to be fond of them, i rarely play stuff like that.“

So it’s a fad because you rarely play that type of game? Smh.

The momentum is dying because they’re too slow updating the game and adding features. On top of that, the first battle pass was awful.

[Deathdeliverer]

Game is great but battle passes burn me out. It burned me out on Fortnite and Apex has done the same. Being “forced” to play a lot is too much for me. Too many good games out and I just can’t do it anymore. I’ll still play the game when I want to but my battle pass days are over. I will never buy another.

[Hungryalpaca]

I play it with my buddies but we all can’t stand the battle pass. The rewards ain’t good and it takes too long to level it up. Atleast you get enough currency to buy the next pass but it takes far too long. I don’t have a lot of game time because of my job and I’ve managed to just hit level 25 since it came out. I don’t have enough time to hit level 100.

[Deathdeliverer]

Same here man. I’m LVL 40 with a whole job, wife and kid. Between the them, the gym, and a plethora of great game releases I cannot commit to just one.

[DillyDilly]

The end is near for Battle Royale

[Codedan]

I’m sure this was said about game modes like team death match as well.

[DillyDilly]

Team Deathmatch is a mode not a game genre in itself. Two very different things

[sKiiTs8]

bad example Codedan, i think a better example is what peolpe thought about "zombie" games yet Days Gone and World War Z prove these games can still be good WHEN there's creativity and innovation. I think BR will remain big as long as the devs add new things to make it exciting.

[Codedan]

Battle Royale is a mode as well. How is it not? If a developer chooses to release only a BR that is their choice.

[SierraGuy]

BR will never be TDM or Domination.

And for the love of God n4g what's up w these ridiculous ads in the middle of the screen.

Time to find a new gaming news source.

[BadElf]

Team deathmatch is a mode in alot of FPS games.
BR is the same.
Its just because these games come out with JUST that(br) and one map.

Too many people say its a genre...thats just crazy

[Feralkitsune]

I can see it being both.

[generic-user-name]

@DillyDilly

BR is a mode in Blops4 and BFV.

[No Way]

It's not going to disappear. It's just overly over saturated right now.. soon companies will realize that and will create other games and the market will even out.

[chris235]

you stated it: battle royales. they are non games. why would anyone want to play such a tired game mode over and over and over again unless one is just starting gaming at a very young age and doesn‘t kniw better or real games?

[TheSocietalAnomaly]

Non-games huh? That’s the dumbest shit I’ve read in a long time. You do realize how you feel about BR, is how millions of us feel about bs like telltale games, Minecraft, and simulator games right?

And how can you say it’s tired when it’s only been big for less than 2 years? Do you have any idea how long team death match has been the most played mode in all shooters? Doing the same thing over and over? You can’t gatekeep what a real game is, you aren’t a powerful human. You just cry on the internet and other weak dwellers agree with you.

And to that other simple minded child, sorry dogg, it’s not a fad, it’s going to be here longer than you. I don’t even like BR that much, but ya’ll dumb crying.

[KyRo]

The same way people have been playing TDM for nearly 3ish decades. The mode is in its infancy and apex came along and added a lot of fresh ideas. So did realm Royal and so will many others. Just because it's not what you're Into does not make it a real game.

[VTKC]

Thats crazy! Thats like saying fifa, nba etc, Call of duty, assassins creed are non games just because theres loads of iterations of them.

[generic-user-name]

Let me guess, the game's you happen to enjoy are 'real' games. The snobbery is laughable.

[AnubisG]

I think there is too much battle royal games on the market. Apex was fun but there are other games releasing all the time.

[harmny]

Actually there isnt. There are too many survival games though and I don't see anyone complaining

[waytoobad]

too much inclusivity to the point excluding majority of player base, virtue signaling, expensive stuff etc etc

[sKiiTs8]

It's gotten boring, that's normal, that's just how games work. BR isn't dead, it's just waiting for more innovation. Like any genre /game, it gets boring, i sunk like 100 hrs in and loved it, but thats a LOT of time, no wonder im bored

[Knushwood Butt]

MAG 2

[Deathdeliverer]

I loved mag. It’s only issue was being ahead of its time.

[Knushwood Butt]

So true.

[monkey602]

There's some absolute garbage being spewed in the comments above.

Apex is still doing really well. It is also the best balanced battle royale offering around.

The season pass just turned out to be a waste with little to offer and the updates are quite slow to arrive

[Noskypeno]

The game is very satisfying to play but could definitely use a couple new maps or atleast map changes like night time or rain. Also some of the mechanics can be frustrating, like im pulling the trigger on someone 30 ft from me and it for some reason makes my character kick or punch, really frustrating when you shoot first and only have one team left and die because it wont allow you to shoot. Another thing it could use is different modes like singles or maybe even deathmatch.

[Father__Merrin]

There's no solo it's teams only which sucks

[Araragifeels]

Also they keep teaming you up with the a lot of trash player.

[Father__Merrin]

That's true. I'm not someone who spends all day on BR you always get someone swearing at you when your jump master etc. That's why there needs to be solo like pubg and once your experienced you can team up

[MrChow666]

I like the team play aspect more so when you find good team mates

[PhantomS42]

and teams of three no less, what a joke.

[senorfartcushion]

Outside of Kotaku Highlight Reels and crappy IGN Pro-Gamer videos I've seen nothing on the game. It's definitely the Battle Pass - gaming's Netflix Subscription Service.

[Arty84]

Yep and the same with BFV firestorm good for a couple but its ridiculous that they thought they could jump into BR with this amount of content

[fonduktoe]

The battle pass was a disaster and really deflated the hype. The lack of updates and modes is keeping it in the dust. Without new modes soon this game will continue to dwindle.

[MetroidFREAK21]

I still like and play the game a lot. The game does admittedly need more content though.

[MrChow666]

I never had any interest in br or f2p games, I tried fortnite and I thought It sucked but Apex is imo a very good game, I find It hard to put It down the gameplay is that good and I havent spent a cent on It. It needs more support from respawn to keep It fresh tho

[badboyz09]

2 of my friends deleted it I never played it.

[elazz]

What's the problem if people move on to another game. Play the meaningful games you desire that are worth your time. Else you'll only touch upon a very small library and miss out on much. I played 20 rounds of Apex and that's it. It's a good game. It was fun but now I need to continue persona 5, Rdr2. Soon I'll be playing anno 1800 and days Gone. And about other service games. I skip them because of the lack of content or quality or the forceful micro transaction behavior.

[SLiSH83]

Actually it’s flipped for me, I haven’t touched fortnite except a few times this season and been playing Apex more.
I prefer the gunplay and no building BS of Apex.
But yes Apex needs to do a better job of updates to keep the community engaged

[HighlyDoubtful]

Author didn't know streamers were paid to play til EA admitted it LMAO. As if it doesn't happen ALL THE TIME. At least do a tiny amount of research FFS.

[lildudexst]

No new mode got tired and bored. No solo or two man squad. Battle pass was weak.

[frostypants]

Huh? It's doing great. By far the best BR game. Clickbait nonsense.

[TheHan]

I don’t like battle royal only the PUBG one was actually fun for a short bit. But if it wasn’t for PUBG I would have never played a Battle royal game. Other than that I don’t play them period.

[joab777]

It’s the attachment rate. Fortnite and many games are great at this. You need to offer things that build a character’s portfolio, making it more difficult to leave. Once you accrue a trove of personal items, you find it very hard to move on. Ask the many that went back to Epic’s juggernaut.

This article is very good, but misses the fact that no game can survive on being the hottest game, as it is impossible. So either you plateau and settle and maximize profits for that number of people, or you push for more, offering big updates to bring people back, or events that people don’t want to miss etc. Small updates will make the present players happy, but won’t increase the player count.

Personally, for me, it’s attachment, evolution and the strive for revolution that makes a game great. Apex was great at the latter when it launched. It must maintain this momentum while also building its attachment rate with players.

[Gr8saiyaman88]

Ah, yes. Another "Fortnite killer" drops in popularity after people realize it isn't very special, just something new.