Epic Games CEO Says 'Apex Legends' Hasn't Cut Into 'Fortnite'

Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney said that Apex Legends hasn't noticeably cut into the many players Fortnite boasts even after Respawn Entertainment's battle royale game achieved such a successful launch. Respawn's game came out at the start of February, and like other battle royale games that came between it and Fortnite it was touted by some as a "Fortnite killer," though it seems that's not the case. Sweeney even directly referenced Apex Legends when interviewed by GamesBeat to talk about how many players Fortnite's gained since the recent game released.

GamesBeat spoke to Sweeney and Epic Games chief technology officer Kim Libreri during the Game Developers Conference event and asked the two about Apex Legends and other topics. The two were scheduled to hold a keynote presentation during GDC, and when asked what topics would be addressed during that event, Sweeney said the Epic Games Store and other online services would be focus points. The Epic Games CEO commented on an important milestone that's coming up for Fortnite and the game's actually gained players since Apex Legends released instead of losing them.

"We're very close to hitting 250 million Fortnite players," Sweeney said. "Since Apex Legends came out, we've gained an Apex Legends worth of Fortnite players, which is amazing."

That's quite a few players considering Respawn announced at the start of March that Apex Legends had over 50 million players, a number that's likely gone up by now. The game also achieved the most successful launch month of any free-to-play title and earned a massive $92 million through its optional purchases.

While amassing that many more players itself, Fortnite has also reached two non-event peaks following the release of Apex Legends. Sweeney said Apex Legends hasn't made a "visible cut" in Fortnite, though there is one game that occasionally does.

"We hit a Fortnite non-event peak twice after Apex was out," Sweeney said. "We haven't seen any visible cut into Fortnite. It's a funny thing. 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."

Sweeney did give Apex Legends some credit by saying it has "re-energized a lot of shooter players, people who come in and out of shooters depending on what's popular. The CEO added that it was "awesome to see other games picking up on battle royale" and putting unique spins on the genre.

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