For those unfamiliar, Apex Legends is the battle royale game created by Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment. Apex Legends was surprise-launched in February of last year, and quickly became one of Twitch’s most-played games thanks to EA paying popular streamers to try it out. This lead to the explosive popularity of Apex Legends, which has maintained a formidable player base ever since.
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Coming in second place was Fortnite, Epic’s battle royale game that has maintained a high level of popularity for a few years running. Fortnite has had the highest annual gaming revenue ever, so Apex Legends beating it out as the most-downloaded is a pretty impressive milestone for the shooter. Respawn was quick to thank its fans for the honor on Twitter, giving a shout out everyone that made the game’s success a possibility.
Free-to-play games have risen in popularity quite a bit throughout this console generation, as publishers look for ways to get more money out of their games. By removing the initial barrier to entry, many games are able to sell cosmetic items to players as a way to earn income, a business model that’s proven to be successful for titles that are able to attract a solid player base. It’s unlikely that free-to-play games, especially those with battle royale modes, will be going away any time soon. Many of them are even among the most addictive games out there.
Still, it is great that Apex Legends managed to take the crown for 2019. The game has been pretty entertaining to watch grow, not to mention all the Apex Legends memes it helped spawn. Hopefully, there will be plenty more from the game in 2020. That being said, the PS5 and Xbox Series X will likely lead to some pretty stiff competition between the popular free-to-play games on the market.
Apex Legends is currently available for PS4, PC, and Xbox One.
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