Apex Legends dev explains why they had to remove Duos to add Solos mode

Apex Legends Season 21 marked the return of the Solos mode, but it has replaced Duos temporarily. Several questions were asked on why Respawn took this decision, so a dev has answered.

Solo Takeover is one of the main highlights of Apex Legends Season 21, as it’s the first time the mode has been added since Season 2, in August 2019. It was a surprising change from Respawn as they had previously shut down requests for a solo mode completely.

However, now that Solos is back, it has replaced Duos for the first half of Season 21. The community at large thinks it was “an excellent decision” to add Solos again – “but not at the cost of Duos.”

Respawn Entertainment

They raised multiple questions on a Reddit thread about why Respawn took this route instead of having all three game modes at once. To this, an Apex Legends dev has answered:

“Queue times can be a factor, but bringing it back in this way also allows for monitoring and data collection on this new variant and Solos as a whole,” said community manager Amy Thiessen.

Having three game modes at once means finding matches will take longer as the player base will be divided. Solos has been added after a long time and naturally, it will attract players more, perhaps leaving Duos in the lurch.

Two modes at once also give devs enough data and time to monitor players’ preferences and make decisions accordingly. “We see the comments and appreciate all of the feedback, and it does get shared with the team at large,” the dev continued.

Many players on social media have expressed that they are going to miss playing Duos, as some of them “don’t want a random third,” and think six weeks of Solos “is way too long.”