Fortnite vs Apex Legends: Who's Winning?

Fortnite’s spot as the king of the battle royale genre has been tested by the release of the latest sensation, Apex Legends. Fortnite and Apex Legends have a number of things in common. They are both BR games, shooter games, and free to play. But a number of critical differences between the games sets them apart.

Is there room for both of these games to co-exist at the top of the same genre?

Apex Legends ​reached a player count of 10 million in the first three days of its release. It took Fortnite two weeks to reach the 10 million player threshold.

Fortnite has a player base of 200 million players, while Apex Legends has a more subdued count of 25 million players.

Apex Legends has recently enjoyed great Twitch viewership. It has consistently unseated Fortnite as the most watched game since its release, even during Fortnite’s Secret Skirmish.

As refreshing as Apex Legends is at the moment, it’s unlikely for it to ever eclipse Fortnite’s player base. Fortnite is available to play on practically every platform. For the foreseeable future, Apex Legends is only available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The core gameplay of Fortnite and Apex Legends are quite different from one another. Fortnite emphasizes its building mechanic and Apex Legends utilizes a class system. Fortnite has a more cartoon-inspired art style, while Apex Legends is a bit more realistic. Fortnite is praised for its consistent content updates and Apex Legends was a finished product upon release.

Those differences prove that there is enough room for both Fortnite and Apex Legends to survive. They serve different markets, emphasize different features, and feel different from one another.

It can be fun to crown a king and celebrate the success of the game you prefer, but it’s important for players of either game to understand that competition between Fortnite and Apex Legends is a very good thing for the genre. Both Epic and Respawn will have their feet held to the fire and will be motivated to put forth their very best work.

Consumers are already benefiting from this competition. Fortnite is offering players the chance to earn the Season 8 Battle Pass for free by completing challenges, and Apex Legends is already pushing out new weapons to the game.

There’s enough room for both Fortnite and Apex Legends in the Battle Royale genre. But if we’re convinced that there is a war and somebody has to be winning, the answer is obvious. 

The players are winning.