Apex Legends player count continues to nosedive and players reveal why
Apex Legends' declining player count continues to drop to its lowest point in three and a half years, and players have voiced their complaints.
13th Sep 2024 14:45
Image via Respawn Entertainment
Apex Legends player count continues to nosedive and players reveal why
Apex Legends' declining player count continues to drop to its lowest point in three and a half years, and players have voiced their complaints.
13th Sep 2024 14:45
Image via Respawn Entertainment
There are high hopes that Apex Legends could be in one of the strongest positions ever, what with a mass reset for the 'casual' community, a brand-new map, and new LTMs that lean into this unconventional unlimited respawn genre that other battle royales have adopted.
Yet the player count continues to nosedive. Despite a wealth of new content and accessibility-favouriting quality-of-life updates, Apex Legends players are now coming to terms with the real reason the title appears to be in freefall.
Apex Legends player count decline hits worst state since February 2021
After what appeared to be a bounce back amid Apex Legends Season 22, the title has now fallen to its lowest figure in three and a half years on Steam.
The peak player count has dropped to 260,564 players on Steam, which marks the lowest count since February 2021. These woes were first brought to light when July's figures dropped to 265,000, but August recovered up to 314,000 with the new Season - only to drop off again soon after.
There could be solace in knowing that many of the changes introduced with Season 22 were for lower-skilled players, most of whom reside on consoles, but it remains worrying to look at this from the outside.
Season 22 also pushed players to get back in console-only lobbies, cutting down on aim assist when crossplay is activated, which could also skew the figures away from the PC platform.
Apex Legends players list reasons why the player count continues to drop
The most obvious answer here for the die-hards is cheaters. Many, many fans took to X to claim that hackers are the reason Apex is falling off. "The cheaters, of course. Last night I met a blatant cheater who can burst sentinel and [bunnyhop] at the same time," one fan claimed.
Another player aimed their crosshairs at the new changes, saying that the newer players are being "spoon-fed" while the existing pool has to bite the bullet.
"Every season.. every major update.. the skill gap continues to decrease. idk why they pushed the narrative to spoon-feed less skilled players instead of making them work for things," they said. Others slammed objectives, claiming there's not too much to grind for in Ranked each season.
"I do think the cheaters are a huge issue but IMO the biggest issue is just a reason to play. Ranked is the same thing for 17 seasons and removing the coolest rewards live divetrails to bundle them in a 160 dollar cosmetic. Give us something to grind for not pay for," a third fan said.
It's not panic station time for Apex Legends, but if this downward trend continues, then we might have to hit the emergency button at Hammond Labs and cook up something vastly different.
About The Author
Jack Marsh
Jack is an Esports Journalist at GGRecon. Graduating from the University of Chester, with a BA Honours degree in Journalism, Jack is an avid esports enthusiast and specialises in Rocket League, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and trending gaming news.
