Respawn’s Apex Legends has seen a dramatic decrease in Twitch viewers over the past month, and some prominent streamers claim that the game’s lack of content and “laggy” servers are primary reasons why.
According to TwitchTracker statistics, Apex Legends currently ranks as the 10th most popular game on Twitch. It has a bit more than 28,000 concurrent viewers, with roughly 2,500 channels streaming it as of this writing.
To look at it another way, Apex Legends has averaged around 29,000 viewers in the past week from a little more than 2,700 channels. That’s a substantial drop-off since February, which saw Apex hit more than 269,000 viewers on average its first week, with an average of 10,000 channels streaming it at any given time.
Available data shows March was the last time Apex Legends saw a considerable spike in viewers, but on the whole, the game has seen a steady decline in viewership since it first broke Fortnite‘s single-day viewership record.
Epic Games’ Fortnite, however, ranks number 1 again, with over 150,000 viewers and just over 11,000 channels streaming. The number of viewers is still lower than Apex‘s at its height, despite streaming on more channels than Apex did in February.
There is a possible reason for Apex’s decreased number of viewers as well: Top Twitch streamers are abandoning the game in favor of other games, like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).
Twitch streamer Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek said he could permanently leave Apex based on the game’s current state, referencing that PUBG is “in a better state” than Apex Legends.
Shroud has also referenced (and run into) the game’s “laggy” servers in the past.
According to the International Business Times, Shroud was one of the streamers primarily responsible for boosting Apex‘s visibility and popularity. It’s not difficult to see why, with an average of 65,000 viewers and over half a million followers.
Aside from the game’s current state, Shroud also points to Respawn’s lack of new content as a reason why he could leave the game.
United Front Gaming’s Editor-in-Chief, and GameSkinny contributor, Kenneth Seward Jr., echoed similar concerns about Apex Legends. Despite enjoying the game initially, and writing a good many guides on it, he says the shooter has lost its luster.
I actually stopped playing right after they released the first battle pass. I had already got all the achievements and was hoping for something else to work towards. Unfortunately, the pass…wasn’t cost friendly. It felt like the devs were only focused on money. I mean…after you reached a certain level, you stopped getting loot boxes outside of the battle pass.
Part of Respawn’s core approach to Apex Legends was a slow-and-steady update plan, taking detailed player feedback into consideration and testing extensively before implementing new changes.
However appreciated some aspects of that approach might be, as with the latest update’s gun balancing, it seems this philosophy has the potential to hurt the game in the long run.
