EA and Respawn may be in for a rough ride as Apex Legends revenue continues to drop. Earnings from the battle royale spinoff of Titanfall have continued to decline for the second month in a row.
Apex Legends initially broke records when it launched back in February. After a little over a month, however, the game started to experience a downturn. That downturn has continued with the game’s revenue dropping drastically for the second month in a row according to SuperData research.
In April of 2019, Apex Legends made only $24 million. This represents a 75% decrease from what the game earned in its February launch month.
The reasons for the drop in revenue are varied. A report by Dot Esports points out the number of bug and glitches in the game that Respawn has failed to address. This is in part due to the team’s insistence on having less frequent, but “more thoughtful” updates compared to its competitors.
However, the fact that EA paid a number of top streamers to play the game during its launch month could be another factor. The game didn’t really grow organically. As a result, interest in the game eventually waned once these players stopped playing it.
The real reason is likely a combination of the two. The bloated nature of the game’s numbers at launch were never going to be sustainable. However, EA and Respawn working to quickly address the game’s issues through more frequent updates could have possibly helped retain more players.
Of course, that’s all water under the bridge now. What’s more important now is how EA and Respawn respond to Apex Legends continuing to underperform. Will they be able raise player interest in the game again again? Or is it too late to stop Apex Legends from continuing to hemorrhaging players and revenue? Hopefully it turns out to be the former.
