Apex Legends Sees 25 Million Players In First Week, Blowing Away Fortnite's Initial Numbers

One million, 10 million, 25 million ... the numbers just keep going up and up for Apex Legends, which hit the 25 million player mark in its first seven days, including a peak concurrency of two million. That was enough to prompt another message from Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella, who also updated fans on upcoming content and competitive play.

The first Rivals Apex Legends Challenge is taking place today, Feb. 12, and also next Tuesday, Feb. 19, showcasing the skills of 48 of the biggest Apex Legends streamers. You can view the action on individual channels or via the Apex Legends official Twitch channel. Regular players can look forward to a Valentine's Day event later this week and the Battle Pass starting in March.

If you're keeping track, here's how long it took Apex Legends to reach certain player milestones:

1 million: 8 hours
10 million: 2 days
25 million: 7 days

And Fortnite: Battle Royale, which was released into the wild on Sept. 27, 2017:

1 million: 1 day
7 million: 7 days
10 million: 14 days
20 million: 40 days
40 million: 110 days

Maybe Apex Legends' growth is so astronomical because tons of people were already into battle royales, due in large part to Fortnite, and were more "ready" to try something new and big. In any case, it's clear that, when you compare both games' early days, Apex Legends is blowing Fortnite away. That's a little scary to think about.