Apex Legends Steam player numbers drops to lowest level in years

Apex Legends player numbers on Steam has dropped to the lowest level in three years. The current 30-day average is at just over 110,000 players. The last time numbers were this low was back in January 2021.

This low is part of a continual trend that started in 2023. Apex Legends has struggled for player numbers all year, despite several game changing updates. Even new season releases hardly move the needle upwards. Previously, these would see huge spikes in player counts.

However, these numbers only reflect numbers on Steam. That means this does not even reflect the entire PC player base. Users on EA App won't be counted in these figures. In addition neither are players on Playstation, XBOX and Nintendo Switch.

This steady trend of decline for Apex Legends started all the way back in March 2023. February 2023 was the release of Season 16, the Nemesis Burst AR and added an all new Legend Class system to the game. The result of these changes were a highest ever recorded monthly player average of 257,418 players. Additionally the peak player count was a huge 624,437.

In July 2024 those numbers had dropped to an average of 116,747 players, with a peak of 265,369. That's a significant drop on both metrics. August saw a very minor increase in both numbers, thanks to the release of Season 22.

However, now numbers have continued to drop off. Over the last 30 days, the average player count is 109,516 with a player peak of just 254,972. These trends are also only heading down, with it not yet clear what September's final numbers could be.

Here are the Apex player numbers month by month over the last year:

This steady decline in Apex player numbers will be enough to worry Respawn and EA. There have been some major changes to Apex in the last year, including crossplay, a new map, entirely new mechanics and modes. However, this has not been enough to stabilise the player base on Steam.

With that said, we don't have player data for Consoles or EA App. If the player base is stable on those platforms then this is not as much of a worry as it might seem. Regardless, a decline in player numbers is something that no game wants to see. What could Respawn and EA do to bring players back to Apex Legends?

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Apex Legends news and updates.