Any new Apex Legends update that adds a brand new map into the mix is usually a pretty major one – while the battle royale’s players are regularly receiving new legends, different modes, and balancing updates, a fresh map is a different beast entirely. With Season 22, that’s exactly what we got – the cyberpunk style E-District is arguably the most distinctive Apex map ever. The new injection of content appears to be doing the trick as well, as Apex has seen a welcome boost to its player numbers on Steam.
It’s fair to say that Apex Legends has had a tough time as of late – a fairly mediocre Season 21 was topped off by a review bombing spree after Respawn announced some changes to battle pass pricing that went down like a lead balloon. However, Season 22 (titled Shockwave) is one of its biggest seasonal updates in a while, delivering not just a shiny new map but plenty of meta shakeups and one of the most hotly-debated changes in the FPS game’s history.
E-District is the main star of the show, and while there have been a few grumblings from the community over the amount of ground loot in the map, it’s overall been well received. It feels unlike anything else Apex has produced map-wise, and that’s a good thing.
There’s also a lot of new player-friendly additions, such as a bots mode, and introductory Welcome Pass to onboard novices, and more Battle Sense features to help you make sense of what’s going on during a match.
Elsewhere, as we reported earlier in the week, Respawn has massively nerfed aim assist for controller players. PC players using mouse and keyboard have for a very long time complained that gunfights against controller players feel too one-sided, and after much deliberation, Respawn now agrees. The controller debate genuinely turned some PC players away from the game, so the leveling of the playing field could result in some of them returning.
Those factors mentioned above, plus the typical excitement around the start of new season, is having a positive impact on player numbers. While it’s not a colossal increase, it’s certainly noticeable. The day before Season 22, Apex’s peak player count on Steam dropped to below 200,000 for the first time in an extremely long while. On the day of the update, the peak player count rocketed up to 314,000, and at the time of writing on August 9, things are now settling at around 275,000. While this is only data for one platform, the trends are likely similar elsewhere.
Of course, even at its lowest point, many live service games would kill to have a community the size of Apex Legends’ player base. However, drops and rises do still act as a useful indicator as to whether the right or wrong decisions are being made.
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