After 3 years, Apex Legends has more players on Steam than ever before – why is that?

After more than 3 years, the battle royal shooter Apex Legends has reached a new peak and has more players on Steam than ever before. But how did the recent high come about?

What is the number of players? Apex Legends has had consistently high player counts on Steam for some time now. It was only in February of this year that the shooter set the record of 392,998 (via SteamCharts.com) concurrent players. After the number of players fell minimally in March (354,000) and April (371,000), the shooter experienced a new upswing with Season 13.

On Wednesday, May 11, 2022, one day after the Season 13 update, 411,000 players played the Battle Royal shooter, beating February’s record.

How did the high number of players come about? Season 13 of EA’s Battle Royal shooter Apex Legends started on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.

Season 13 brought some big changes with the Saviors update. In addition to the new legend Newcastle, the so-called Ranked Reloaded as well as changes for the Storm Point map and map rotation appeared.

The New Legend Newcastle & the Storm Point Overhaul

What can the new legend do? The new legend of the successful battle royale is called Newcastle. MeinMMO shows you what the new character can do.

If you haven’t seen the new legend Newcastle’s character trailer yet, you can catch up here:

Newcastle possesses three skills that set him apart:

• Revive Shield (passive ability): Revives and protects allies with a shield while you pull them to safety
• Mobile Shield (Tactical Ability): Throw Newcastle, a pilotable drone that creates a mobile shield of energy and protects against fire
• Castle Wall (Ultimate): Builds a stronghold on allies or targets, giving you cover and an advantage in battle

What has changed at Storm Point? According to the developers, the goal was to improve the features of the Storm Point map without removing anything.

Accordingly, Storm Point received a new so-called point of interest with the sea creature “Sunkene Beast”, which is intended to create a change from the rest of the map’s architecture.

Also, Respawn added a new PvE feature to Storm Point called IMC Armories, which spawns in four different locations.

At the IMC Armories you will meet waves of the so-called Spectres. These are enemy NPC soldiers that already appeared in Titanfall 2. If you survive the attack of the Spectres, you can secure loot.

Respawn reworked ranked & removed 2 hour block on map rotation

How does the map rotation look like in Season 13? In Season 13, Respawn removed the 2-hour block on map rotation. This ensured that only one map could be played within two hours.

Respawn recognized that two hours is too long as for some players that represents the total game time available. For these players, the block meant it was possible for them to only play a single map in a day and not experience the rotation.

What is Ranked Reloaded? Respawn has revamped Apex Legends’ ranked system, adding rank tiers, adjustments to entry costs, and an overhaul to ranked points.

The developers said they made changes to the pillars of the ranked system: team play and the will to win. The goal was to promote team play in Apex Legends and to show the skills of the players more precisely in the future.

You can read what the Savior update and Season 13 bring in detail on the website of Apex Legends Publisher Electronic Arts (via ea.com).

Watch the epic launch trailer for the Saviors update here:

What’s the mood like in other Battle Royale shooters right now? The genre of “Battle Royal” has enjoyed great popularity for years. In addition to Apex Legends, competitors Fornite and Call of Duty: Warzone also receive regular updates with new content and events.

While Fortnite recently caused a sensation with the introduction of the “no building mode”, Warzone players are less than satisfied with the recent Godzilla event.

MeinMMO author Maik Schneider summarizes the mood for Warzone’s Operation Monarch and explains why you should take a look at the event despite the modest reactions.

CoD Warzone’s Godzilla event disappoints expectations – Big monsters, but promises that are too big