Why Is Apex Legends' Twitch Viewership Dropping?

Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale games out there in 2023, owing to its diverse cast of Legends, vast lore, and enormous, detailed maps. Despite that widespread popularity, however, Apex Legends Twitch viewership is at its lowest point in years. In fact, in the last two months, the game has its lowest-ever number of Twitch viewers since 2020.

To put that into perspective, Apex Legends' Twitch viewership peaked in August 2021, at a high of over 124,000 viewers. In November 2023, that number didn't even hit 40,000 - signaling an almost 75% loss in viewership since the peak.

So why is Apex Legends' Twitch viewership so low right now? There might be several reasons for the drop. One of the more prominent reasons for Apex Legends' recent low Twitch viewership is its competitors, like Fortnite.

Apex hosts regular Collection Events, even recently announcing a collaboration with Final Fantasy for an upcoming event. However, even with events like these, it's been challenging for Respawn Entertainment's title to keep up with the likes of other titles in the same genre. Epic Games' ever-popular battle royale has just released several new modes including Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, and Lego Fortnite to keep things fresh for veteran players and draw in new ones, drawing attention away from Apex Legends and to Fortnite. 

NiceWigg, a streamer and content creator for 100Thieves, wrote on X/Twitter, "What is there to watch in Apex right now daily for viewers except for scrims. The same ranked system that’s been lackluster for 6-7 seasons now?"

Other users in the thread noted issues with the game's ranked system, suggesting that taking too long to rank up and overly challenging games were both reasons that many players don't enjoy watching streams.

NiceWigg went on to add, "Speaking for myself, I used to watch and play tons of ranked [Apex Legends] but now I get bored seeing the same plays for 1 hour straight. It doesn’t help no one really enjoys it either. Majority of times when I’m tuned into streams the ones playing are complaining [or] mad the whole time."

If Apex Legends wants to keep up with Fortnite and PUBG, it'll need to pick up the pace with new events and collabs that fans will love. The game has a huge, passionate community behind it, and Respawn Entertainment has the potential to keep Apex Legends' status as one of the best battle royale games out there if they regularly update the game and hold events that keep the game truly fresh.