Apex Legends Soars To 10 Million Players In 72 Hours

Developer Respawn Entertainment has revealed that the (very) recently released free to play battle royale Apex Legends has already hit the 10 million milestone, in an incredible 72 hours. 

Both Respawn and publisher EA were reportedly initially unsure as to how players would react to the idea of Titanfall spinoff, especially one that’s a battle royale, given the general negative connotations that seem to have sprung up around those two words.

Fortunately, it looks like they knew what they were doing. Apex Legends hit 1 million players in a few hours, 2.5 million in its first day, and now 10 million.

Respawn boss Vince Zampella took to the official Apex Legends website to share the good news:

This has been a truly incredible journey. We tested and tweaked. We argued and agreed. We got to a point where we felt some magic. We knew it would be risky to take the franchise in this direction, to go free to play, and do a surprise launch. But we fell in love with Apex Legends and wanted, needed, other people to play it too.

He continued, saying that the outpouring of love for the game has been beyond the team’s “wildest dreams”, and that he’s grateful so many of you gave Apex Legends a chance.

I personally think it’s super heartening to see the Titanfall developers with such a massive hit on their hands. The first two Titanfall games were incredible pieces of work that didn’t get nearly enough love, and I hope Apex Legends and its success will encourage more people to go back and play those first games.

If that was EA’s plan – to use Apex Legends to drive up interest in the Titanfall franchise before hitting us all with Titanfall 3 – then I’ll be one very happy customer.