As epic as Fortnite has become, despite the laundry list of competitive streamers—such as Ninja—that have kept it alive, let’s face reality. Fortnite is becoming an old game. Gamers need refreshing titles and find that most games lose their longevity years or even just months after release. MMORPGs don’t suffer from this as much due to new content being added as well as enemies or dungeons to conquer. Yet, shooters begin to wane after a long while. Fortnite has had tons of additions cosmetically speaking, but in terms of new content, it really hasn’t done much aside from the occasional event or map alteration. Apex Legends is currently booming because it is something slightly different. More akin to a game like Overwatch, Apex Legends allows gamers to embody a character with special abilities and gives them a freedom Fortnite doesn’t allow as of now. That’s why—in terms of popularity—Apex Legends is beginning to overthrow Fortnite even if it’s not as popular.

As we mentioned a mere moment ago, Apex Legends is all about the powers characters have. Wraith with her dimensional shift abilities or Bloodhound and his/her tracking abilities makes players react differently in various situations to confront and win over these powered warriors. While Fortnite has always had success due to its focus on building structures to lure in enemies or survive deadly encounters, the characters themselves aren’t given any abilities to use that drastically change the game. Apex Legends offers players a vast realm of possibilities on how to play and allows teams to build devastating parties capable of outwitting another team or at least increasing their chances at victory. This ultimately makes every match of Apex Legends feel differently despite the base game being only slightly different than Fortnite.

Continuing the discussion on new additions. If Respawn Entertainment continues to find Apex Legends lucrative—only time will tell regarding this though—then we will surely see some more maps being implemented in later updates. With a game already allowing for a ton of variety, Apex Legends will only boom greater if new maps can give players even more reasons to play. Right now, the current map is large enough to give players hundreds of hours of repeated play with no issue but a new map will truly seal the deal giving Apex Legends the throne Fortnite sits upon.

As of now, Fortnite still has a dominance in the free for all/battle royale genre due to its player base being diverse—kids play as much as adults do—and due to its streamer base. Twitch, YouTube and various other platforms still give Fortnite a constant boost thanks in large due to viewers loving to see a player—or team—reach the coveted number 1 spot. This means that Apex Legends still needs to continue to impress the larger populous before it can win over Fortnite and that might take time to accomplish. However, time is also money and if Apex Legends loses that…then Fortnite will keep its reign for now.