Will Apex Legends ever be bigger than Fortnite?

Apex Legends was released in February 2019 and since then, the game has been continuously compared to Epic Games' Battle Royale Fortnite.

This is even better than I expected - #ApexLegends 10 million players after 3 days, 25 million after 7 days.Fortnite took 41 days to hit 20 million. https://t.co/TVZK2BQvFW

— Thomas Rice (@thomasrice_au) February 11, 2019

Considering the fact that both games belong to the battle royale genre, comparing them is justified to a certain extent. When it comes to gameplay and in-game mechanics, both Fortnite and Apex Legends have a lot of unique features to offer. So, making comparisons may not be so effective after all.

Having said that, Apex Legends has managed to overshadow Fortnite's numbers in its first week. While Fortnite took 14 days to reach 10 million players, Apex Legends managed to accomplish the same within three days.

This is why people are getting positive on $EA -- #ApexLegends is not just having a strong launch, it's having a significantly better launch than the most successful game in recent history. pic.twitter.com/4vANqkHJ5k

— Thomas Rice (@thomasrice_au) February 11, 2019

Additionally, while Fortnite took more than 40 days to hit 20 million players, Apex managed to break all records by reaching 25 million players within 7 days of the game's release.

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Player count: Apex Legends vs Fortnite

According to Statista, Fortnite had almost 350 million players across the globe in May 2020. The last available numbers for Apex Legends are from October 2019, when the game had more than 75 million registered players.

However, neither EA nor any other official source has revealed the number of players that Apex Legends has gathered.

The last update for the player count of Apex Legends came in February of this year when EA stated that the new player count has seen a growth of 30% from last year. Considering the fact that Apex Legends had more than 75 million players in 2019, it is safe to say that the game has more than 100 million registered players.

EA says Apex Legends had 30% growth in new players year-over-year. pic.twitter.com/uVdKLcDjIP

— Apex Legends News (@TitanfallBlog) February 2, 2021

The game is already available on Nintendo Switch. Additionally, with the game scheduled to be released on mobile (Android and iOS) platforms soon, Apex Legends will definitely receive a massive boost to its player count. Having said that, Fortnite's 350 million player count won't be easy at all for Apex Legends to beat.

Nevertheless, crazier things have happened in the gaming industry. Given the difference in gameplay as well as in-game mechanics between Apex Legends and Fortnite, EA's Battle Royale taking over Epic Games' title won't be a 7surprise for the community.