Apex Legends vs. Fortnite: Assessing Popularity in 2023

Apex Legends vs Fortnite. Which one is more popular and better? This question can arise in your mind. But, without proper analysis, it’s not possible to answer.

Both of these games are known for their amazing multiplayer experience. But that’s not the complete story. We have looked far deeper than you can imagine and found many surprising facts.

In this analytical article, you will learn about fantastic stats, facts, and graphics that will satisfy your curiosity.

💬 Note: We’re excited to share an excellent article comparing Apex Legends and Fortnite. Our dedicated writer spent an incredible 10 hours crafting this outstanding research piece. The extensive research and knowledge poured into this exceptional article will captivate you.

Apex Legends vs. Fortnite: A complete overview of Popularity

Before we dive deeper, we should have some idea about the nature of these two games:

➡ System requirements

Both of these games have apparent system requirements that give us a clear idea about the optimization level of these titles.

Here are the system requirements for Apex Legends:

• Processor: Core i3 6th Gen/AMD FX-4350 or Better
• RAM: 6GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640/Radeon HD 7730
• Disk Space: 22 GB+
• Operating System: Windows 7 or higher

After knowing the required specifications, you can see that a PC with basic hardware can run Apex Legends without any problem. Even the obsolete Windows 7 OS is also compatible. Though we don’t know for how long Windows 7 support will exist.

Looking at Fortnite, we can see that this game is also compatible with PCs with basic hardware. Here are the system requirements for Fortnite:

• Processor: Core i3 3rd Gen
• RAM: 8GB
• Graphics Card: Intel HD 4000 on PC/AMD Radeon Vega 8
• Disk Space: Not specified, but maybe around 40 GB
• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6

Unlike Apex Legends, Fortnite doesn’t run on Windows 7. Also, it needs more disk space. But AL needs at least 6th gen Intel core i3 processor, whereas Fortnite can be played using the older i3 3rd gen processor. In fact, gamers can play both of these titles on very basic computers with minimum GPU power.

➡ Gameplay Mechanics

Although both of these titles have many similarities, some key differences have made them unique from each other.

Apex Legends is a First-Person shooter game, while Fortnite is Third-Person. This characteristic has created many more contrasts, particularly in the shooting, movement, and overall game mechanics.

Fortnite has a built-in defense against enemy shootings. But, in the AL, the player needs to be more skillful to protect themself from enemy shooters.

The movement mechanics in Fortnite is very basic. You can easily move and play. However, in Apex Legends, a gamer must be an expert and do more to move and fight.

Both of these titles with cross-platform play capacity. Also, these two are getting regular updates which improve the stability and add new features to the game.

Now, at this point, AL and Fortnite are not the same compared to the time when these were released.

➡ Total number of gamers

Currently, Apex Legends have a total of approximately 136 million registered accounts and 114,580,698+ active players. On the other hand, Fortnite holds an estimated around 550 million registered accounts and 234,546,282+ active gamers. We have tagged a gamer active if he/she has played the game within the last 30 days.

We may not get the whole story after seeing the active players. So, we have made some very specific statistics that represent the changes in the number of total players over the years in different ways.

Source: ActivePlayer.IO, EsportsDriven

Total number of registered gamers over the last 4 years:

Here are the data of total registered player accounts in Million since 2019:

For your convenience, we have featured a graph that gives you a clear view of the total number of players in millions on both Apex Legends and Fortnite.

The number in the above graph represents the total number of registered players in both games. This statistic may not be 100% accurate as no precise data is available on the official sources. So, based on the many unofficial sources and our analysis, we have estimated these numbers.

The latest data is not precisely available on any recognizable forums or sources. So, we have made our estimation for 2023’s data in some cases.

Source: reuters.com, Business of Apps, Statista

The number of active gamers changes every month:

In the following graph, you can see the number of active players over the years in every month. It shows the trend of the popularity of Fortnite and Apex Legends.

The above graph is clearly showing that Apex Legends is slowly gaining popularity. On the other hand, Fortnite is losing its place even though it’s still the most popular battle royal game and far ahead of AL.

However, to understand the scene from an even closer position, you should look at the other factors featured in the next parts of this post.

Peak players by year:

We may see different data if we look at the number of players who are active in the peak hour.

The following smooth line graph shows the trend of active peak players over the last three years. However, we can exclude the 2023 part, as it’s the middle of the year.

The above statistic clearly shows that if we exclude 2023, the number of active peak players of Apex Legends’ is increasing. But the opposite is happening for Fortnite.

This information is based on the data available on ActivePlayer.IO. We have used data till April 2023.

Average time spent by players:

There is no exact data available about the average time spent by players on both of these games. However, according to various unofficial sources, on average, for both Apex Legends and Fortnite, gamers spent a few hours a week on these games.

In Fortnite, most of the active players spend 6-10 hours a week; on Apex Legends, it’s around 7 or 8 hours.

Platform preferences:

Both Fortnite and Apex Legends are available on mobile, PC, and console. If we look at Fortnite, we can see that 69% of players play it on Console, which includes both Xbox and PlayStation. The PS is the most popular platform for this title, with around 40% of gamers. 46% of the players play on smartphones, and 28% play on PC.

This percentage seems wrong to you. It is because some players play this title on both PC and Console or even all of these three platforms.

Apex Legends’ player count per device has not yet been released by any official or unofficial channel. So, we are unable to give you an insight.

Geographical distribution for Apex Legends and Fortnite:

Undoubtedly, these two games are very popular around the world. In the USA, Apex Legends has 38.92% of its total number of players; for Fortnite, it’s 21.63%. We have also collected the percentage of other mentionable countries as well.

Based on it, we can easily find an estimated number of gamers playing these titles in specific countries. And we did it. After calculation, we have found the following data

For your convenience, we have made the following graph. It will help to understand the popularity of these two games in the countries mentioned in the above table:

We can see that both of these games are very popular in the USA. Apex’s user count is particularly closer to Fortnite in this country. So, we don’t know if Fortnite can hold its position in the United States of America in the upcoming years or not.

Demographical distribution for Apex Legends and Fortnite:

62.7% of Fortnite players are young. They belong to the 18-24 years age group. The 25-34 years age group’s percentage is 22.5, and the 35-44 is 12.7.

On the other hand, Apex Legends doesn’t have this many statistics available. However, according to various sources, most of the players are below 18. The 18-34 age group has a significant number of players.

The Apex Legends also don’t have any clear statistics on player count based on gender. But, it is indeed a male dominant FPS multiplayer where a significant number of gamers are also female.

In Fortnite, 72.4% are male players, and 27.6% are female.

Source: Exploding Topics

➡ Number of tournaments and prize pools for Apex Legends and Fortnite

Each year, gamers attend tournaments for both Apex Legends and Fortnite. Some of these events are official. Here are some interesting stats and graphs about these events:

The total number of tournaments:

According to the Esports Charts, both Apex and Fortnite had many official and unofficial tournaments. The following tables show the number of tournaments for these two games from 2019 to 2022.

The above table shows that the number of Apex Legends tournaments is increasing each year. Even as of May 2023, this game has more tournaments held compared to Fortnite.

In the following column chart, we have excluded the data from 2023. It will help to compare the number of the tournament for these two games over the last few years.

Source of information: Esports Chart’s Apex Legends and Fortnite page.

Prize Pool: Apex Legends vs Fortnite:

If we look at the total prize pool per year for these two popular multiplayer games, we find the following data:

We can see that the tournament prize pool is very attractive for these two games. Fortnite is ahead. But Apex Legends’ ones are also impressive.

The above data is based on the information found on Esports Chart. There may be errors as no precise information is available now.

➡ Revenue and Profit Margins:

Since the release of Apex Legends, EA has made over 2 billion USD revenue from this game. Fortnite is much ahead. It’s making several billion a year. Here is the list of revenue in billion for these two popular battle royal games per year:

The following scatter chart will help to understand the increasing trend in terms of revenue:

For this statistic, we have used information from Thcsngogiatu.edu.vn, Demand Sage, Epic Games, and Statista.

We have excluded the year 2023 as no complete data is available for this year yet. There is no clear information about the profit for these two titles. However, It’s hard to determine which one is more successful in increasing revenue.

According to The Verge, Fortnite made $9 billion in revenue in its first two years, which is much higher than Apex’s 2 Billion in the first three years. During that period, Battle Royal games experienced a sudden spike in popularity which is also a factor.

➡ Most popular skin and character

Two of these Battle Royal games have a wide range of choices when it’s skin and characters. If we look at the Apex Legends, Pathfinder, Octane, Wraith, Bangalore, Bloodhound, and Ballistic, are the most picked characters.

On the other hand, if we look at Fortnite, The Foundation, Jonesy, The Visitor, Leviathan, Midas, The Reaper Fortnite Skin, Drift, etc., are very popular.

Source: Dexerto, SportsKeeda, Fiction Horizon.

➡ Most viewed and streamed content

If we look at the most viewed content for Fortnite, we find Travis Scott and Fortnite Present: Astronomical (Full Event Video) as the most watched content on any platform. It has gained 204 Million views.

On Twitch, Fortnite Esports (0.372M views) and Kid jerks off in the Fortnite arena (0.86M views), getting the highest views.

For Apex Legends, 【悲報】釈迦、漏らす – Twitch (1.99M views), LOVE_FuryXD Dies!?! (0.46M views); these are the two most popular Twitch content.

If we compare the top 3 most watched videos on Twitch related to these two battle royale games, we can see the following data:

For your convenience, here is the graphical representation:

To get an even better idea, we can have a look at the following graph based on the average views in thousand on Twitch:

The above graph shows how the average monthly view counts have changed over the last three years. We can see that since January 2020, Apex Legends’ content has gotten more average views than Fortnite.

Source: twitchmetrics.net and buzzrank.io, TwitchTracker

➡ Average Time-to-Kill (TTK) and Time-to-Survive (TTS)

Determining the average TTK and TTS for these two games is tricky, as these depend on several factors.

For Apex Legends, killing a player with 200 HP health takes 2.7 seconds on average and 2.4 seconds for 175 HP. For Fortnite, no such information is available right now.

If we look at the Time-to-Survive data on Apex Legends, it may vary from player to player. Generally, a player’s survival time can be from a few seconds to several minutes. Fortnite is from a few to 20+ minutes, depending on many things.

➡ Factors that work behind the Popularity

Apex Legends:

We will find some interesting facts behind the scene of Apex Legends’ popularity. These are:

• Surprise release and announcement: Apex Legends was launched suddenly and surprised everyone. At that time, Fortnite and some other battle royal games were going through prime time. Apex Legends was a new addition with many unique and different features. That attracted young gamers. As a result, it gained a large player base within a few weeks of its release.
• Influencer partnerships: EA has partnered with many influencers and streamers for Apex Legends. This battle royal game was a very attractive choice for their many followers.
• Free-to-play model: Since Apex Legends was launched as a free-to-play game, anyone could test this title. Therefore, this title got a considerable player base within a short time.
• Other factors: Else, active social media presence, developer responsiveness to the players’ feedback, in-game rewards, and the amazing gameplay mechanisms developed by Respawn Entertainment hugely contributed to Apex Legends’ popularity.

Fortnite:

Like Apex Legends, Fortnite also got the advantage of being a free-to-play game. Apart from this, the following factors also have a significant role in its popularity:

• Early access and beta testing: The Fortnite beta was released before releasing the full version. That created hype among battle-royale lovers.
• Celebrity endorsements: To gain more player base, Epic Games have made deals with several mentionable celebrities like DJ Marshmello, Keanu Charles, Travis Scott, and many other people. Often we saw that gamers were playing Fortnite with celebrity skins and faces.
• In-game events and collaborations: Fortnite held many in-game events and collaborated with many popular franchises, including Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, etc., to bring their skins, themes, and characters into the game.
• Community Engagement: Epic Games’ engagement with the Fortnite community effectively increased player engagement.
• Cross-platform: One of the coolest things is Fortnite is available on multiple platforms, and gamers can have a cross-play facility, which also has increased its popularity.

Else, cultural impact and social media integration, in-game challenges, community-created content, etc., have made a huge impact on Fortnite’s popularity.

Fortnite has made a huge contribution to the increasing battle royal game in the industry. Apex Legends is not too far. While Epic Games is still enjoying the benefits of owning the most popular battle royal title even in 2023, EA is making its strategy to make its title more attractive and unique.

We may see many interesting changes in the upcoming years when we compare Apex Legends vs Fortnite. But, the truth is Fortnite is still the most played and popular battle royal title in the industry.