Apex Legends attracts 10 million users in 3 days

Before last week, barely anyone had heard of Apex Legends. It was a project kept so tightly under wraps that when it suddenly launched Monday, it took video gamers by surprise — a difficult thing to do in an industry known for its flashy hype and zealous marketing efforts.

But Apex Legends’ stealth approach appears to be working: The game that’s trying to beat Fortnite at its own formula has grown even faster in its opening days than Fortnite itself. In its first three days, Apex Legends racked up 10 million new players, according to its developer. It took two weeks for Fortnite’s player-vs.-player game to hit the same mark.

Like Fortnite, Apex Legends is a free-to-play competitive shooter that forces players closer and closer together over the course of a match. It also features vibrantly animated characters that are each unique and have special abilities. But Apex Legends also adds a twist on the battle royal game mode, allowing characters to redeploy if they’re killed, so that players who are killed can stay engaged the whole time. Together with slick movement mechanics and intuitive teamplay, Apex Legends is proving to be an instant hit.

“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,” wrote Vince Zampella, chief executive of developer Respawn Entertainment, in a blog post.

Part of Apex’s success lies in the fact that almost all of its marketing has been generated by ecstatic players themselves. The company established a livestream of the game on day one. But word-of-mouth has been equally important.