New data from analytics firm Sensortowerhas indicated that Apex Legends Mobile saw a drastic drop in bookings throughout most of 2022, and severely trailed competitor Call of Duty Mobile.
According to the figures Apex Legends Mobile saw a drop in 2022 from a peak of more than 12.5m downloads in May, to less than 2.5m by June of the same year. Bookings were also down by more than 96% almost eight months after launch, although there had been a general slump in FPS games on mobile at the time Sensortower points out that CoD Mobile had seen a 7% increase in the same timeframe.
Apex Legends Mobile saw a high-profile shuttering in February after releasing less than a year before. Alongside this, EA also cancelled development on Battlefield Mobile, closing developer Industrial Toys in the process, prompting speculation around the cause of the closures and the bigger picture for EA’s plans for mobile.
Cutting your losses
The new figures suggest that EA’s shuttering of Apex Legends mobile was therefore perhaps more justified than initially thought. The data indicates a severe drop in both revenue and installs from an initial peak, and although its trailing of CoD Mobile is not altogether unexpected given the much longer life of that title, it’s hardly encouraging when Apex Mobile was intended to compete with both that and the upcoming battle-royale Warzone Mobile.
As we’ve previously reported, although Apex Mobile’s shuttering may have been an initial shock to the industry, the live-service apocalypse many feared does not appear to have come to pass so far. Rather, it would seem that EA had good cause to be sceptical about the game’s future. With some speculating that friction between Tencent and EA had a hand in the closing of the game, it’s possible that EA will be having a significant rethink before stepping back into the mobile arena.
