Apex Legends was a revolutionary battle royale released by Respawn. However, the game fell off the wheel in 2023
Apex Legends, once deemed as the best battle royale in the gaming scene, has seemingly fallen off. The game was released with amazing gunplay and movement unseen in other games prior. Ongoing games kept getting better with each season this year. Apex, although having three seasons in 2023, saw its players slowly fall off. We have broken down the reasons we believe caused this downfall.
Unbalanced Casual Lobbies
Apex suffers from the issue of having sweaty lobbies. A player can die within two minutes of dropping or play fifteen minutes and die in the first fight. On rare occasions, the Skill-Based Match Making (SBMM) decides to work, and a player enjoys a good game.
There is little to no difference between a ranked and a casual game. Players cannot kick back and relax within a match. This discourages regular players from getting into the game. Most people coming into the game are not looking to play competitively. They usually want to enjoy a game or two with friends, but with every player being at a professional level, it becomes impossible to enjoy.
Newcomers also suffer from this. With a new season launching, many new players want to try out Apex. The difficult lobbies instantly discourage players from continuing, mainly because the game has a big learning curve.
New Legends Not Holding Up
Credit: EA
The best part about Apex Legends is its Legends. Each character has their unique lore that makes them unique. Their stories intertwine with each other and move towards a greater tale. Unfortunately, the new Legends released in the past few seasons have not had an overarching story in the game. Additionally, their unique abilities are not as interesting as the ones that came before. Legends that have been with the game since near launch still have the most plays. Additionally, those Legends also dictate the meta of the game. This leaves little reason to unlock new Legends once they get released.
Lack of New Modes
Ever since the inception of Apex, the primary complaint it has received is the fact that it does not have many interesting modes. Apex Legends is a battle royale; however, for the longest time, it has been just that. Since season 8, the game has had arena mode, and even more recently, in season 16, they released Mixtape. Mixtape, in particular, introduced three other new game modes. While they are good additions to the game, they lack any constant updates, causing them to fall into irrelevance.
Boring New Map
Apex released a new map this year called Broken Moon. While initial impressions of the map were amazing, soon it was found to be too big. The map lacks anything interesting to keep the player engaged. With very forgettable points of interest and huge distances between them, the maps lack any engagements during the first few rings. Once the ring does close in, the players not getting any engagement are quickly killed off due to not being prepared for fights.
This has been the game’s second unsuccessful map launch, with Storm Point being released before it. That map faced the same problems as it was also far too vast.
Due to the absence of new fun maps and, therefore, a change in scenery, the game becomes repetitive.
Sparse In-Game Events
Credit: EA
With any live service game, events take center stage when it comes to delivering fresh new content. With Apex Legends, these events happen very scarcely. Often, they add very little other than a few new skins that almost always have to be paid for. Even when collaborations are made with big-name artists like Post Malone, a Limited Time Mode (LTM) is released for two weeks with more skins to buy.
While fun, the LTM lacked anything to do with the artist.
It is difficult not to draw comparisons to other games of the same genre, like Fortnite. When Fortnite does an event, everyone knows. Even people who do not play the game get excited about their events. Apex, on the other hand, has very forgettable events. They add next to nothing to the game, and the LTM disappears as fast as it comes.
This problem extends to Apex’s current event, Revenant’s Uprising, as well. The event had everything going for it, including in-game lore. The LTM that launched with it has a unique and fun concept. However, the LTM is available to play only on Saturdays and Sundays. Additionally, it has an in-game cutscene that can only be viewed within one hour of the mode starting for the day.
It’s weird decisions like this that make the game’s events eventually lose their hype.
Server Issues
Credit: Respawn Entertainment
Respawn, the developers of the game, are run by Electronic Arts (EA). A company notorious for its horrible servers. This has caused Apex to suffer throughout its lifetime. This year was no exception. Players faced horrible ping rates and packet loss no matter where in the world they were. The game became unplayable at times due to the servers being down.
Repetitiveness
A sin for any game to commit is becoming repetitive. Due to all the reasons listed above, Apex Legends turned into a game that did nothing new. The same year, when other games were making headlines for bringing in new content, Apex Legends kept doing what they had always done. While what they have always done still holds up, it is not enough to retain a constant player base. This is what caused the game to lose players over all of 2023.
Overall, it has been a very dull year for this battle royale, and exciting changes have become mandatory for Apex Legends to stay relevant in 2024. Moreover, the game’s Esports scene has also faced disappointing fates as teams like NRG have stepped away from competing.