Is Apex Legends Dying?
Ever since its release in 2019, Apex Legends has peaked and dipped multiple times to a point where we’re not sure – is Apex Legends dying? Indeed, in this analysis, we’re taking a closer look at all the statistics and offering a final verdict for this title both as an esport and as a videogame.
Apex Legends Player Count – The Lowest Ever?
Let’s start with the Apex Legends player count with some bad esports news.
Firstly, back in December 2024, reached its lowest-ever peak player count since launch. Specifically, statistics quote between 56,000 to 45,000 players actively enjoying Apex Legends.
Contrast this to the peak from 2022, of 630,000+ concurrent players, and the issue at hand becomes rather clear with 10% of players remaining.
Viewership – Twitch and the ALGS
Beyond player count, viewership is another metric used to discuss how popular a title is at a certain point in time.
Starting with competitive Apex Legends, the esport is celebrated by the best Apex Legends tournaments through the Apex Legends Global Series. Here’s a look at peak viewership for Apex Legends in the past few years:
- 2022 – 676,653 peak viewers
- 2023 – 704,938 peak viewers
- 2024 – 567,582 peak viewers
Although 2023 saw the absolute peak for competitive Apex Legends viewership, 2024 saw that figure shrink back to pre-2022 numbers.
Similarly, if we were to consult Twitch for general viewership numbers, average viewership has been seen to decrease to roughly 30-40% of what it used to be back in 2022.
Teams and Pros Leaving Apex Legends
Another telltale sale that Apex Legends is suffering is that esports players at the top of Apex ranks are leaving the title for other esports.
Specifically, with the release of Deadlock, long-term Apex Legends professionals such as Konstantin “Hardecki” Kozlov have announced their transfer to the likes of Deadlock and other esports.
In addition, the following esports organizations have abandoned Apex Legends esports in the past two years:
- Entropiq
- 100 Thieves
- BLEED
- NRG (left in 2023, returned in 2024)
- OpTic Gaming
- Cloud9 (left in 2023, returned in 2024)
- Team Liquid
- G2 Esports
Moreover, organizations like NRG and Cloud9 have repeatedly “left” the scene and “returned” a few months later. Indeed, this is likely a move to avoid team expenses during the offseason when Apex Legends is quiet and not enough third-party tournaments take place.
Is Apex Legends Dying? Why?
So far, we’ve concluded that less average people are playing Apex Legends, less professional esports players are playing Apex and the viewership is also plummeting.
With that established, here are some reasons behind the topic of Apex Legends dying:
- Content Drought – not necessarily a lack of content may be the issue here, but a lack of interesting updates to bring players back to the game. Notably, two days ago a mid-season update made headlines. Overall, as a ‘live-service’ game, Apex heavily relies on EA to keep things fresh to keep players in the game.
- Esports Competition – so many other esports and videogames compete with Apex Legends in the shooter genre, such as new titles such as Deadlock and Marvel Rivals beyond the established esports titles.
- Format woes – as always, a lack of third-party tournaments in the off-season makes it almost impossible to retain viewership and player numbers throughout the entire year.
However, we wouldn’t worry too much about Apex Legends and Apex esports for the following reasons:
- ALGS Championship 2024 – kicking off at the end of January, the most anticipated esport tournament of the year will truly let us know where the scene lies.
- ALGS Year 5 – we’re certain RESPAWN is planning the next year of Apex to offset these observations
- Free title – as a free game, one update is all it takes for players to flood back to Apex
Is Apex Legends Dying? In summary, it is in the process of dying but it’s far from dead.
