We’ve heard plenty about Apex Legends’ dropping revenue, and about the game losing momentum on Twitch, lot of which has to do with Respawn Legends’ admirable efforts to curb crunch at the studio, even if that means not being able to update and add to their game on a constant basis. But while the game may not be doing the same numbers as something like Fortnite does, viewed in isolation, there’s no doubting that it’s been a huge success for EA nonetheless.
During their recent quarterly earnings call (via Seeking Alpha), EA executives went into just what that success is looking like, in terms of numbers. EA CEO Andrew Wilson mentioned that the free to play battle royale title is getting 8 to 10 million players ever week, which he says are very high user engagement statistics.
“We have between 8 million to 10 million people engaging in this game on a week-by-week basis,” he said. “That is large by any measure. It makes it one of the — probably the most engaging games. We have continued to see great fan sentiment inside that game. And we expect to continue to grow that audience over time.”
Wilson went on to re-iterate the position that both EA and Respawn have held for a long time- that this is a game they both want to keep supporting for “a long time”.
“When we think about Apex Legends, we set out to build something with longevity,” he said. “And at the very core is a great gameplay experience. And we know that long-term engagement involves the ongoing release of new content and the ongoing running of events, both of which the team at Respawn are doing with great success, but the very core of that is a great gameplay experience. And we’re building this in a way that we expect to continue to grow and continue to be a meaningful part of our business for a long time to come. And the sign of engagement that we see today lead us to believe that’s possible.”
EA CFO Blake Jorgensen also spoke about the game’s longevity, saying that they plan to keep the game running for the next ten years, if not more- which, again, is something that they have been saying pretty much since the day the game came out.
“We think about this as almost like an annual title,” said Jorgensen. “We will continue to innovate that game and evolve that game over time and hope to believe — I believe that we have a 10 year run ahead of us or if not more. There’s so much potential and ways to change that game over time and add to that game. We think that there’s just huge potential in that and that’s how we’re managing it.”
Apex Legends is currently in its second season, and we can probably expect season 3 to kick off a couple months from now. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for continued coverage.