Warzone vs Apex Legends: War is on as NICKMERCS, TimTheTatman & CouRage switch games

David Purcell
timthetatman and nickmercs with apex legends and warzone banner

Apex Legends is starting to see some huge streamers return to the game ahead of its Season 10 update this August, but a lot of that comes down to the current state of Warzone. 

The game’s next major patch is stacked with fresh content, whether it be the new Legend, Seer, buffs and nerfs for its roster of characters, or map changes. There’s going to be a lot for Apex fans to sink their teeth into, of that there is no doubt.

Conversely, there is a strong feeling of stagnation surrounding one of its biggest rival games in the battle royale space, and that’s Call of Duty: Warzone.

After a rather uninspiring Season 4 launch, which didn’t come close to its predecessor’s Nuke Event – not to mention the hacker problem that plagues the game – it feels a bit like a broken car in its current form. A fresh lick of paint won’t be enough for some people, either.

Now, some of the biggest streamers around are starting to turn their attention to other things, and Apex Legends looks to be the biggest beneficiary of its shortcomings.

NICKMERCS slowing down on Warzone

Let’s start with NICKMERCS – who has built up an extraordinary community from his involvement with Warzone. They keep coming back for his tips, best loadouts, and opinions on a seasonal basis. From a business point of view, he would probably love nothing more than for Warzone to be knocking it out of the park.

While he’s not completely abandoned CoD, he’s starting to play a lot more Apex Legends. In fact, he was streaming it live as I was writing this article.

Just recently, the FaZe Clan creator picked three things that desperately need to change in Warzone – the map, FOV slider, and that there’s a lot of work to be done on glitches.

He said: “I think we need a brand new map, we need a change from Verdansk. I think it was a swing and a miss. I thought at first that it might have some sauce, some flavor…but ultimately, I don’t think we’re messing with this stuff. I want an island theme with beaches, ocean, palm trees, and jungle. That’s what I want.”

Whether or not he’ll come rushing back for a future update remains to be seen, but based on these comments, he’s holding out for wholesale changes. Let’s face it, he’s not wrong.

TimTheTatman on Apex Legends

Next up, TimTheTatman – who has over 6.8 million followers on Twitch.

This case is a little different to NICKMERCS, who’s enjoying the grind of Apex on stream, as Tim has explicitly stated that ideally he wouldn’t be jumping into Respawn’s game at all.

During a broadcast on July 27, he said: “Right, let’s put me into Apex bro. Man, you know Warzone’s in a tough spot if I’m playing Apex.

“Gosh man, I can’t even remember what to do here bro,” he said, before looking through the controls. He hadn’t played it in so long.

Back in May, only two months ago, Tim actually pointed out some areas where Apex Legends falls short of Warzone and even Fortnite.

“I’m just going to flat out tell you why I don’t personally enjoy Apex that much,” he told his stream while deliberating over its ranking. “One: The time-to-kill (TTK). The time-to-kill is very high. Obviously, I’m playing Warzone right now, so I’m very used to Warzone.”

He continued: “Another thing that I don’t enjoy is the armor system. What I mean by that is that I don’t like that you can have gold armor, I can rip your gold armor, and then you can swap out for another gold armor and you have full armor again.”

CouRage

One of Tim’s close friends, Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop has also been experimenting with the Legend-based multiplayer game, and Fortnite.

For a long time now, CouRage has been critical of CoD’s battle royale title. Back in February, he said was “sick” of the constant issues with hacking and glitchy gameplay, as much as he’d like to enjoy it.

He said that his “attention span for Warzone and ability to play it is at an all-time low.”

Timestamp at 10:30 below.

“The reason why I stopped playing with Nick, Tim, and Cloak is because I’m sick of that game,” he continued. “I love Warzone, but I also hate it. We either get cheated against, then we have stream snipers coming after us. There’s the stim glitch for the seventh time.”

While there have been multiple updates since that time, including Season 4 and Season 4: Reloaded, it appears the streamer is still not fully convinced.

Twitch stats: Warzone vs Apex Legends

Warzone  vs apex legends
Warzone still dominates for viewership. 

At the time of writing, Apex Legends has 180,000 viewers on Twitch – compared to Warzone’s 133,000.

The margin isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it is a NICKMERCS shaped hole in CoD viewership.

According to Newzoo, a website that records Twitch viewership stats, Warzone racked up a total of 92.3 million views in June – compared to 47.7 million of Apex. With so many streamers giving other titles a try, it should be interesting to see if those figures change between July and August, depending on how future updates shape up for each of them.

So stats-wise, Activision’s offering seems to be dominating, but the common denominator here is that if it was down to these streamers, there wouldn’t be a debate about which is better: Apex Legends or Warzone? The latter would win hands-down, but the fact of the matter is – in its current state – there are too many issues for them to dedicate themselves to it, and that’s a sentiment much of the community will share.

Warzone might be on top for now, but only time will tell if this is a serious shift or a blip.