Apex Legends
GameBy Respawn Entertainment · Released Feb 4, 2019
Documents about Apex Legends
Plus: We Welcome Our New Steam Chart Overlords
This analysis examines the significant 2022 update to Valve’s Steam charts and provides a comprehensive performance review of recent PC and console game releases.
- Valve’s 2022 Steam chart update now ranks games by total revenue, including DLC and in-game transactions, rather than unit sales, which inherently favors live-service titles like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 over premium releases.
- Slime Rancher 2 achieved strong market performance by selling over 100,000 units within six hours of release and peaking at more than 21,500 concurrent users.
- Established franchises and niche simulators remain high-performing, with Construction Simulator and Return to Monkey Island reaching 17,300 and 15,500 concurrent users respectively.
Analyst Bulletin: Mobile Game Market Review July 2022
The July 2022 mobile game market review provides a comprehensive analysis of significant industry trends, content updates, and event strategies across the United States, China, and Japan.
- Major mobile titles including PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact, and Diablo Immortal leveraged high-profile content updates and collaborations in July 2022 to drive player engagement and revenue.
- Music-themed integrations became a dominant trend, highlighted by the BLACKPINK virtual concert in PUBG Mobile and the introduction of a BGM collection system in Puzzle & Dragons.
- Collaborations remained a primary event strategy, exemplified by Cookie Run: Kingdom’s 50-day Disney partnership and Langrisser’s limited-time event with the Gintama anime series.
Apex Legends Mobile: Fighting the Competition
Apex Legends Mobile serves as a high-fidelity, squad-based battle royale experience designed to translate the core mechanics of its PC predecessor into a mobile-first environment.
- Japan is the most lucrative market for Apex Legends Mobile, generating 42% of lifetime revenue with an average revenue per download (RPD) of $3.70, significantly higher than the $0.75 RPD in the United States.
- Apex Legends Mobile utilizes a hero-based system that differentiates it from competitors like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile, allowing for deeper lore-based immersion and unique character-specific perk trees.
- The game employs a generous onboarding process that uses AI-controlled bots for the first 8 to 14 levels, ensuring new players have 4 to 6 hours of gameplay before facing real human opponents.
Bungie Reportedly Working on Destiny Mobile in Partnership with NetEase
Bungie is reportedly collaborating with NetEase to develop a new first-person shooter (FPS) mobile title based on the Destiny intellectual property.
- Bungie is developing a new, original first-person shooter mobile game based on the Destiny intellectual property in partnership with NetEase.
- The project has been in development for over two years and represents a strategic effort to expand the Destiny brand into the high-growth mobile gaming market.
- This collaboration builds on a 2018 financial relationship where NetEase invested $100 million in Bungie.
Mobile Game Market Review: May 2022
The mobile game market in May 2022 was characterized by significant global launches and a continued emphasis on retention-focused features and cooperative gameplay.
- Apex Legends Mobile launched globally in May 2022, reaching the top 23 in US grossing charts and the top 50 in Japan.
- The Chinese mobile market is seeing an accelerating trend of games incorporating roguelike elements, with three new top-200 grossing entrants in May alone featuring or claiming to feature the mechanic.
- Netmarble’s MMORPG Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds achieved a top 50 grossing position in the US immediately following its global launch.
Apex Legends Mobile Success: Genius Marketing or the Power of a Name?
The rapid market entry of Apex Legends Mobile serves as a case study in balancing established brand equity with aggressive, multi-channel user acquisition strategies.
- Apex Legends Mobile achieved over 5 million downloads within its first five days of release, split between 2.4 million on Google Play and 2.9 million on the App Store.
- The game secured the number one spot in 6 Google Play categories and 4 App Store categories within 48 hours of its May 17, 2022, global launch.
- Electronic Arts executed an aggressive two-month pre-launch marketing campaign that generated over 90,000 Twitter followers, averaging 1,500 new subscribers daily.
Apex Legends Reaches Over $2 Billion in Lifetime Revenue
Electronic Arts achieved significant financial growth for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, driven primarily by the robust performance of its live service offerings.
- Apex Legends surpassed $2 billion in lifetime net bookings, achieving a 40% year-over-year increase driven by the success of Season 12.
- Electronic Arts reported total net bookings of $7.5 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, a 21% increase over the previous year.
- Live services now account for 71% of Electronic Arts' total revenue, reflecting a 17% growth in that segment.
Plus: Steam Debuts for April Falter So Far
This analysis examines the state of the global video game market during mid-April 2022, focusing on Steam performance trends and cross-platform sales data.
- The Steam market is increasingly bifurcated, with revenue dominated by evergreen live-service titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Lost Ark, and Apex Legends, while new mid-tier releases struggle to gain traction.
- The estimated 'new normal' for first-year gross revenue for many professional developers on Steam has shifted downward to the $100,000–$200,000 range.
- New indie titles are seeing underwhelming launches, with peak concurrent user counts often falling between 100 and 500 for games with development budgets ranging from $200,000 to $2 million.
Legionfarm: A Unique Application of NFTs in Esports
Legionfarm serves as a primary case study for the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within game-peripheral services rather than direct game development.
- Legionfarm launched 4,000 'Gaming Heroes' NFTs on January 26, 2022, providing holders with lifetime access to group play sessions and future DAO governance rights.
- The company operates a service-based model connecting high-income players with top-tier pros for coaching and gameplay, utilizing a $50/month subscription or an à la carte rate of approximately $12/hour.
- The 'Guild Masters' program allows investors to sponsor aspiring pro players, with sponsors receiving a share of the player's future earnings for five years if they successfully turn professional.
Player Two Enters the Game
This analysis examines the mid-August 2021 landscape of the global video game industry, focusing on corporate acquisitions, regional market shifts, and quarterly financial performances of major publishers.
- The gaming industry is increasingly central to global entertainment, with traditional media structures like the Olympics and broadcast television relying on gaming ecosystems to maintain relevance.
- Electronic Arts outperformed expectations with $1.34 billion in bookings, while Take-Two Interactive maintained strong performance through legacy titles like GTA V.
- Krafton’s share price dropped 20% following its IPO due to Chinese regulatory scrutiny, despite achieving 34 million downloads for Battlegrounds Mobile in India.
Electronic Arts Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Results
Electronic Arts reported its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, highlighting a period of stable revenue growth driven primarily by the expansion of live services.
- Electronic Arts reported $5.62 billion in net revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, representing a modest 1.6% year-over-year increase.
- Live services, including subscriptions and titles like Apex Legends, generated $4 billion in revenue, now accounting for 71% of the company's total income.
- Net income fell 263% year-over-year to $837 million, primarily due to the absence of one-time tax benefits that occurred in the previous fiscal period.
Plus: Rome Burns Hot, NieR's Porting Fail
This analysis examines current market trends and upcoming releases for the PC and console gaming sectors, focusing on Steam and the Nintendo Switch during late April 2021.
- The co-op title It Takes Two has surpassed one million copies sold, indicating a strong, underserved market demand for innovative two-player gaming experiences.
- NieR Replicant’s PC launch is underperforming due to technical criticism regarding gameplay speed being tied to frame rate, despite high initial sales expectations.
- Total War: Rome Remastered currently leads Steam’s Hype charts as a top 50 unreleased wishlist title, signaling strong anticipation ahead of major AAA releases like Resident Evil Village.
Companies behind it
As the documents state it.