Apex Legends hits lowest player count in years as Season 22 disappoints

Apex Legends has dipped below 100k average players on Steam, its lowest average player count since 2021. Though a new map and dual-wield weapons were added in Season 22, the game’s latest content drop hasn’t stuck the landing.

In all fairness to Apex, it’s still one of the most popular games on Steam and has daily player count peaks close to 200k players. It’s still a huge game with a player base most games could only wish for.

However, it’s impossible not to notice a downward trending player count for Apex Legends, one that hasn’t stopped despite the game still getting substantial content updates with each season.

Looking at player count trends, Season 20 was actually a huge resurgence for the game both in terms of peak and concurrent players. Season 21 kept it alive in May 2024, but it fell off quickly and saw a drastically decreased average and peak player count compared to S20.

Season 22 has hit a new low point at less than 100k average players and 249k peak players. This is almost half of what Apex’s peak was in February 2024, and it marks a clear decline in interest for the game.

This could come down to a number of factors. Season 21‘s new character, Alter, hasn’t exactly been a hit. She’s got one of the lowest play rates in the game with abilities that rely heavily on communicating with her teammates, making her a questionable solo queue pick and an unpopular Legend.

The dual Mozambiques have also been a point of controversy, with the devs not nerfing the weapon for weeks despite the akimbo shotguns absolutely dominating the meta.

Apex Legends will need to do something special in Season 23 to win players back and stop this downward spiral if it wants to remain one of the world’s most popular battle royales.