Earlier this week, investors walloped Electronic Arts after the video game publisher missed its revenue projections. Today, they might be rethinking their positions.
The company, late Thursday, announced its latest title, Apex Legends, had reached 1 million concurrent players and 10 million total players in just 72 hours.
“We hoped you’d love it as much as us, but never in our wildest dreams could we have expected the outpouring of support and positivity we’ve seen,” wrote Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment, developer of the game. “From all of us at Respawn, thank you for giving us and Apex Legends a chance. Thank you for joining us on this journey. This is just the beginning! We have so much more in store for you this year.”
Apex Legends was a surprise announcement from EA. The game was unveiled and launched on the same day. The title is a Battle Royale-style game, the same basic concept as Fortnite and other popular multiplayer games. It’s set within the universe of Titanfall, a popular EA franchise that was created by Respwan, giving it a build in audience.
While the initial numbers are certainly encouraging, the title has a long way to go before it proves to be any sort of notable threat to Fortnite. That billion dollar franchise has reinvigorated Epic Games, which is using some of its earnings from Fortnite to launch an assault on the leading games digital distribution retailer.
EA’s hoping that Apex Legends and the upcoming title Anthem from developer Bioware will help right its ship in the coming months.