Apex Legends viewership increased in 2021, but still behind Fortnite going into 2022

Apex Legends viewership did rise in 2021, but Fortnite is still the most popular game in the Battle Royale genre.

Despite the hype surrounding Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone throughout 2021, Fortnite remained the most popular battle royale on Twitch last year. According to SullyGnome, Fortnite was watched for almost 1 billion hours, making it the fourth-most watched game on the streaming platform.

Here are the Battle Royale numbers for 2021:

These incredible numbers put Warzone as the 7th most popular game on Twitch, followed by Apex Legends in 9th place. Compared to 2020, Fortnite and Warzone both saw a decline in viewership (Fortnite was in 3rd and Warzone in 6th). On the other hand, Apex Legends was in 13th in 2020.

Apex Legends has seen a major increase in viewership in 2021 — and going into 2022 — due to its popularity on Twitch. Many of the largest streamers have dabbled in Apex Legends, including NICKMERCS, CouRage, shroud, and other FPS veterans. This has helped increase Apex Legends viewership in recent months.

While Apex Legends still deals with its own issues, the game isn't as buggy as Warzone. Other streamers left Warzone due to the massive amount of hackers and cheaters within each competitive match. Apex Legends also continues to have events full of tantalizing skins and new content, like the upcoming Habitat map.

But Apex Legends viewership can't seem to compete with Fortnite's pop culture collaborations, which include almost every popular IP nerds can think of, from Marvel to Street Fighter to rappers. Fortnite continues to be popular with younger players who can't get enough of the skins, collaborations, and dances. Most recently they welcomed Spiderman to the game as part of a collab for the launch of the movie Spiderman: No Way Home.

It will be interesting to see if Apex Legends viewership can surpass Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Minecraft, and VALORANT in 2022.