Destroyer2009 is striking fear in the Apex playerbase
Apex Legends Steamchart numbers have dropped slightly after a major hack in the Apex Legends Global Series. Security concerns among fans have driven the low numbers, which appear particularly stark after the success of Season 20 brought recent massive success to the game.
Last Sunday, two high profile pro Apex Legends players, Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose and Philip “ImperialHal” Dosen, were hacked mid-match. This led Respawn to postpone the regional finals for NA indefinitely, which has caused a mild panic among the playerbase.
What are the Apex Legends Steamchart numbers at now?
Since Sunday night when the hack occurred, the player number for Apex Legends on Steamcharts has fallen. The Monday after the ALGS NA regional finals saw a peak of 370,000 while Tuesday had a peak of 382,000.
Comparatively, last Monday (March 11th) had a peak of 422,000 players and last Tuesday (March 12th) had 421,000 players.
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What does this mean for Apex Legends?
In the wake of the hack, questions of cybersecurity have been absolutely everywhere, but answers are nowhere to be found. So far, Respawn and EA have not released any official statement on what has happened. We can assume they’re still working on the issue.
However, while Respawn works to find out what even happened, rumors and speculation are swirling around the internet asking if Apex Legends is even safe to play. If the hacker, currently known as Destroyer2009, could access the computers of Dark Zero’s Genburten and TSM’s ImperialHal, then who else could he access?
Because of these fears, a fair share of players are abstaining from playing Apex Legends from what we can see in Steamcharts. Better safe than sorry?
Should you still be playing?
If you’re extremely concerned about Destroyer2009 (wait, 2009… is this guy 14?!), then it wouldn’t hurt to put down the game and take this time to touch some grass. If you’re looking for a longer answer to this question, check out our article here.
Short answer: maybe? You’re probably fine to keep playing.
It seems likely that the Steamchart player count for Apex Legends will ease back to normal levels once players feel safe from nightmares of Destroyer2009 stealing the Loba x Reader fanfiction from their hard drives. Hopefully Respawn releases an official statement sooner than later and their cybersecurity is markedly improved.
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