The debut of Apex Legends, a battle royale game created by Respawn Entertainment (the creators of Titanfall 1 and 2) and distributed by Electronic Arts in February 2019 shocked the globe. It was launched without any previous marketing or promotion. This was done on purpose since Electronic Arts had received a lot of criticism during 2018 for underwhelming games and the widespread usage of loot boxes.

Because of influencer marketing, Apex Legends swiftly dominated the gaming industry. In other words, EA compensated famous Twitch and YouTube broadcasters to broadcast Apex Legends gameplay.

The practice of game businesses using influencer marketing is not exactly new, albeit the tactic is still in the testing phase. You cannot expect to become popular just by throwing money at Reddit, Twitch, YouTube, and other social media networks. Apex Legends was advantageous due to the fact that the gameplay was really rather fantastic.

Browser games are renowned for getting popular, often seemingly out of nowhere — and typically by mistake. 2048, for instance, was produced in a single weekend because the creator wanted to explore whether he could design a simple game from scratch in a short amount of time. It had nearly 4 million visits in one week.

There is something to be said for games that go viral on their own merit, organically. IO games are a popular internet gaming trend as of late. Popularity of games such as Slither.io, Shell Shockers, and Krunker .io is built into their very basic gameplay, although they may be difficult to master. The majority of.IO games, such as survive.io, are also multiplayer, making them competitive. You can play Krunker .io on Crazy Games, in addition to the aforementioned games.

Although publishers with a lot of money may target the social media networks that help games go viral, this technique is not foolproof. It is comparable to trying to build a meme and repeating it to make it seem more popular. In the early days of imageboards, they were known as "forced memes." In a sense, things are going toward "forced viral" status, yet the millennial age is somewhat savvy to this phenomenon.

However, it was a success for Apex Legends, and not only because of influencer marketing. There were further considerations, which we will examine below.

Apex Legends Secret Development
Before its release, a free-to-play battle royale featuring loot boxes, microtransactions, and the EA brand was certain to attract criticism. As a result, Respawn Entertainment said, "Let the gameplay speak for itself" and published the game without any previous advertising. The creation of the whole game was total secrecy.

It was a calculated risk that paid off, as Apex Legends swept the gaming community. Within eight hours of its debut, the number of unique players in Apex Legends topped one million. It more than quadrupled within 24 hours, and by the end of the week, over 25 million people had joined the game. At the end of February, Apex Legends had more than 50 million gamers worldwide.

Apex Legends became the most-streamed game on Twitch for the whole of February, and Electronic Arts witnessed its highest stock increase since 2014 as a result. This was almost a miracle, given EA had posted dismal quarterly earnings results throughout 2018.

Why has Apex Legends grown so rapidly?
Apex Legends may have been created in secrecy, but after the game was published, EA mainly depended on influencer marketing. In other words, they compensated prominent livestreamer personalities to play Apex Legends, a kind of guerilla marketing that has grown more popular as the young of today become increasingly indifferent about conventional marketing.

Two games dominated the battle royale market: Epic Games' Fortnite and PUBG Corporation's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Thus, any new competitor on the market, particularly one from a AAA developer, was certain to make headlines in the gaming media. When you consider that people were anticipating Titanfall 3 development news and Respawn Legends built a battle royale game out of the blue, the scenario was set for tremendous media interest.

Even though EA was supporting Twitch broadcasters, some of the most prominent streamers said that they loved the game and would continue to play it once their sponsorship with EA expired. Apex Legends has been acclaimed for its refined gameplay and many gameplay elements. These featured first-person gameplay (a first for a free-to-play battle royale), well-balanced character powers, and an emphasis on team-based gameplay and communication.