According To Epic Games CEO, 'Apex Legends' Hasn't Impacted 'Fortnite'

Since being released in February, “Apex Legends” has exploded in popularity, quickly amassing 50 million players and being one of the top-streamed games on Twitch. But, according to Epic Games CEO, it hasn’t made much of a dent in “Fortnite.”

These comments came from VentureBeat, who spoke with Tim Sweeney this week about the state of Epic Games at this year’s Games Developers Conference.

Sweeney revealed that “Fortnite” had nearly reached 250 million players with little to no noticeable player drop because of “Apex Legends.”

He told the interviewer, “We’re very close to hitting 250 million ‘Fortnite’ players. Since ‘Apex Legends’ came out, we’ve gained an ‘Apex Legends’ worth of ‘Fortnite’ players, which is amazing.” Sweeney also pointed to “Fortnite” hitting a non-event peak twice after “Apex Legends” was released.

In fact, Sweeney said that “Fortnite’s” biggest competition came from another EA title, “FIFA.” He said, “The only game you can see where its peaks cut into Fortnite playtime is 'FIFA.' It’s another game for everybody, wildly popular around the world.”

It is worth mentioning that it took only a month for “Apex Legends” to hit the 50 million player count. It took “Fortnite” over four months to hit that mark.

Sweeney did throw some praise to “Apex Legends,” though, for what it has done differently in the battle royale genre, saying, “What Apex Legends has done is re-energized a lot of shooter players, people who come in and out of shooters depending on what’s popular.”

He continued, “It’s awesome to see other games picking up on battle royale, adding their unique spin to it and advancing the state of the industry.”