Apex Legends grew at a mind-boggling pace initially, but has since fallen off in the eyes of many. We take a look at how that happened.

Apex Legends, for a moment, had it all. Respawn’s buttery smooth battle royale first person shooter (FPS) was an overnight sensation in February of this year. Strong influencer support, respected gaming mechanics in a thought out universe, and its free-to-play nature born EA a seemingly golden goose. So how did the new titan of battle royales go from most played worldwide in its first month to where it is now? 

While the hype machine may have slowed, recent user-base milestones (70 million anyone?) and future plans suggest fans can expect a lot more from Mirage and the merry band of characters duking it out in the Titanfall universe. 

Reaching the Apex

To say the launch of Apex Legends was unorthodox is an understatement when talking about EA. Started by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins, EA is known for its aggressive and slow burn marketing campaigns designed to get gamers to purchase the title before it’s even released. EA can hype AAA games for years before launch, annually spending around six hundred million dollars on such campaigns. 

Most Popular Streamed Games from Jordan Oliver on Vimeo.

To hear of a new squad and hero based FPS from the makers of Titanfall (owned by EA since Q4 2017) on a Sunday, and be playing it on Monday was utterly shocking to the gaming community. That was the plan.

EA and marketing lead, Arturo Castro, knew their best chance to avoid pre-release controversy and the game’s best mechanics being pirated was to simply give the game to players and let them decide its value for themselves. If it was good enough, players might not be as eager to roast the loot box system and create industry news like they did during the shaky tenure of EA’s Battlefront 2. 

In regards to his atypical approach, Castro states “The idea of long-form campaigns was being challenged… Beyoncé famously drops her album, and day one it becomes a massive hit. Kanye West did the same thing… Why couldn’t it work for games?”

Going Viral 

In a 2017 press release, Electronic Arts (EA) announced it was following the industry trend and would be allocating a more significant portion of its marketing budget to influencer marketing. Fast forward to February, 2019 and influencers are the keystone to the Apex launch. EA reportedly paid Tyler “Ninja” Blevins a fat million dollars to stream the game on day one. Dr. Disrespect, another popular streamer, also featured the battle royal regularly in the weeks and months following release. 

In the game’s first eight hours online it reached one million players. That month would see it hit 50 million. Fortnite took 16 weeks to do the same and had finally been dethroned. Nine months later though, and the future isn’t so clear. Fortnite is back at number two, League of Legends is sitting comfortably at the top, and Apex is fourth and dropping in stream viewership. Was paid influencer marketing truly the only key to Apex Legend’s meteoric rise?

Players were not solely driven to the Respawn title because of the viral launch. The fact is, the game was good. The mechanics were lauded as being smooth, characters fun, balanced and likeable. Apex redefined the format PUBG and Fortnite had made so famous. 3 person squads, sixty players instead of one hundred, and a fluid in game respawn system that would later be adopted by competitors. 

It was fun and squad-based play that Respawn Entertainment set out to deliver. A more mature experience, layered with weapon attachments, armor, and special abilities that rewarded team play, and exploring the rich environment of King’s Canyon. The revolutionary “ping” system will forever change console communication. Respawn project lead, Drew McCoy said at a preview event “This isn’t a game anyone expected us to make, especially us at Respawn… We chase the fun.”

“I feel most alive when rapidly approaching my death”

– Caustic, Apex Legends

Fun, in the long run, wasn’t enough. Despite an estimated $92 million in revenue across platforms, the game’s user base and engagement started dropping. The hype wore off and a lack of updates and new content meant there was nothing left for the transient Fortnite and PUBG players. 

Influencers brought players in, but developers would have to keep them coming back. Bugs, rampant cheating, and unsatifying patches were enough to drive away impatient hardcore players. The lack of new maps, characters, and guns quickly dominated the social conversation. Once faithful streamers started to leave the game when the checks stopped coming in. Often times blaming the games overuse of on-screen graphics and small issues that consistently went unlatched. 

It seemed Respawn couldn’t keep up with player demand. The developer released a statement that their aim was to avoid industry famous “crunch” and instead focus on creating quality improvements to the game.

Growing Pains

In February of 2019 the game quickly garnered a player and user base of 50 million strong. It would take another 8 months to attract an additional 20 million. It’s now clear that Apex Legends is not going to replace the likes of Fortnite. Despite this precipitous fall off in new users, the future of Apex Legends is actually quite bright. 

In the ups and downs since launch, Respawn has caught its stride and found its place in the Battle Royale ecosphere. Season 3 brought a new map, another new character and some much needed updates to game mechanics. With cheating nearly eradicated, the developer has been focusing on quality of life improvements and creating limited time and themed events (like this year’s Halloween event). World building and character development have come at a slower pace than the average gamer would no doubt prefer, but the recent quality of updates and increased frequency have been worth the effort. 

The Future is in Their Hands

Apex Legends brought in an estimated $45 million from in-game spending in October across console and PC, up from $16 million in September, where they didn’t crack the top ten. This makes it the most profitable period since the game’s launch quarter. It seems as though listening to their core community is working. EA has been quick to notice the missed opportunity in letting Apex lose market dominance. With a commitment to give the people what they want, EA announced a partnership with Valve, which should see the title arrive on Steam sometime next year.

Steam will provide a natural boost to user numbers and also indicates that players may finally get one of the most frequently requested features. Cross-play. Cross-play between consoles and PC has the potential to not only save the title, but also help further position itself for expansion into Esports. 

EA has also announced plans to launch a mobile version of Apex, with a clear eye on entering the billion dollar mobile market currently dominated by PUBG Mobile in Asia. A successful launch could see the franchise completely reinvigorated. The developers are undoubtedly pulling out all the stops to see Apex enter the tournament circuit. Developers have also promised the title will be available to play on Microsoft and Sony’s next gen systems.

The Apex Legends story isn’t over. EA’s unicorn may have let slip that unexpected number one position, but its biggest success is that it hasn’t failed. In fact, there are big plans as Respawn Entertainment looks to the future; and the recent success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order should only help give credence to their capability. A recent Golden Joystick award for “best multiplayer game of the year” shouldn’t hurt either. 

Apex Legend’s first year may have just been one big marketing campaign after all. Hopefully developers don’t solely focus on market expansion and continue to deliver fun content and player feedback driven patches. The pace at which they can deliver said content will most likely be the ultimate factor. Can EA and Respawn hold their footing and satiate the appetite of hungry battle royale gamers? Will Respawn remain a Titan, or will they fall? Drop into World’s Edge or keep it locked on Repeat.gg to find out in 2020. 

Repeat.gg hosts new tournaments each week in Dota 2 and League of Legends, with more games like Fortnite coming soon! Sign up now and begin competing today.

Esports industry earnings continue to skyrocket as the business grows; these were the highest earning countries in esports in 2019.

These days, we hear about the influx of new money into esports on a daily basis. Yet, it remains surprisingly hard to pin down how much of it is going around in our scene at a given time. Estimates by market watchers can vary substantially. It’s still hard to put an actual price on viewership and most of the industry’s companies only publish financial information in the form of marketing materials.

Fortunately, there is at least one other solid indicator that we can use and that’s prize pools. How much our athletes take home compared to the years before tells us something about how far we’ve come after all. It also gives us an idea of what the biggest markets in our industry currently are, although we’re of course only measuring that by winnings and not total players.

If you are only here to steal our awesome infographic, feel free to skip to it by clicking here.

The Top Ten

For this year, Esports Earnings lists the following top ten highest earning countries:

Numbers taken as of Dec 9, 2019.

Highest earning countries of 2019

In brackets is their position on the list last year. Similarly, the percentages denote a comparison to its 2018 performance.

There are some interesting things to unpack here.

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Follow the Money

So far this year, we’ve seen a total prize pool of $209,317,612.01 (as of Dec 9). Last year this number was $162,754,167.19. This is a 28.61% increase. Of this money, the top ten countries earned $117,950,565.53 this year. That was $109,513,716.42‬ a year ago. This, in turn, is a 14.24% increase.

On top of that, last year saw the prize money for the top ten distributed between 10,950 players. This year that number was 10,955, an increase of only five.

These numbers suggest that esports’ growth, at least in the professional segment of these countries, has almost entirely been an increase in prize money and not one of player base.

Prize money share by country

The Elephants in the Room

So now we know that there is, relatively, the same amount of money at the top. Yet if we look at the percentages, the distribution of these winnings has strongly shifted. France, Canada and Australia, for example, have seen a strong increase in money, while staying on a similar number of players. Finland and the United Kingdom saw big increases as well on even fewer players.

These changes can be explained in two words: Fortnite and Dota.

In 2018, Epic Games made a commitment of $100,000,000 to its Fortnite esports circuit. It was made halfway through the year, however, and the first official World Cup only took place this July. Which means that this year is the first where we see the full effect of this.

Similarly, Valve’s premier Dota 2 event, the International, has grown from a “humble” $1.6 million get-together in 2011 to a $34,330,068 crowd-funded juggernaut this year. Its winners, OG Esports, took nearly half of this money, which greatly shifts the balance in their respective home countries. (Johan “N0tail” Sundstein’s country of Denmark benefited less from this, as Danish CS:GO squad Astralis really messed up the 2018 stats with all the winning they did that year).

China and Russia did a lot less well in Dota this year, which is reflected in their standings. The latter country even comes in at a twelfth position for 2019, after being the sixth earner twelve months ago.

The weight these games’ relatively few events have on their overall circuits is reportedly one of the reasons Counter-Strike pros rejected Valve’s proposal to create a similar event for their game. It does mean CS:GO is now the third highest paying game in esports, down from the second position last year.

Highest paying games of 2019

Imbalanced growth

In conclusion, it’s safe to say, economically, esports is still doing very well for itself. It is slightly worrying that two games have such a big influence on the overall rankings though. In the same vein, the fact that 59% of the prize money is concentrated in the top ten countries is understandable, but perhaps not the best for long-term growth.

Highest Earning Countries Infographic

If anything, we hope that in 2020 we can even this out a little, to support and grow the smaller scenes. But of esports still being here by then, there should be no doubt.

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Esports continues to make millionaires of gamers around the world; here are some of the top from 2019.

As the esports industry continues to grow, more eyes are drifting towards which gamers are making the most revenue. Fans find that players winning major tournaments can win millions of dollars in prizes. Now that the year draws to a close, we put together a list of 2019’s six highest esports earners according to Esports Earnings.

*Note – figures taken as of December 2019 and relate specifically to money earned in tournaments. 

If you are only here to steal our awesome infographic, feel free to skip to it by clicking here.

6. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf – $3.06 million

Arguably the biggest eye-opener this year in esports, 16-year old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf made national headlines by winning $3 million from the Fortnite World Cup Finals in July. Many talented players participated, but of the 100 finalists, only Bugha survived. In 2019, Bugha earned just above $3.06 million, mostly from his World Cup performance.

“I’m just going to save the money and invest it and not do anything dumb with it,” Giersdorf told ESPN. “I want to get a new desk, that’s about it.” 

He has the unique distinction of being the only player on this list that didn’t earn their money primarily from Dota 2.

5. Anathan “Ana” Pham – $3.14 million

Yet another esports headliner this year was The International 9, the culmination of the year’s Dota 2 competition. TI9 held a prize pool of $34.3 million, and nearly half of that went to Dota 2 team OG Esports for winning.

Anathan “Ana” Pham, helped bring the team victory as their Carry. Ana’s mastery of the hero Io led to their success at TI9, boosting his 2019 winnings to $3.14 million. He was one of the youngest players on the esports circuit to crack the Top 100 of earners. 

Team OG recently made waves when they announced a coaching change, which brings us to the next person on our list.

4. Johan “n0tail” Sundstein – $3.15 million

OG’s Dota 2 team is incomplete without Johan “n0tail” Sundstein. Playing the Support role and as captain of the team, his leadership is crucial to the team’s success. At nearly $3.15 million earned in 2019, n0tail inspires many to follow in his footsteps.

Rather than competing in the next Major, OG and n0tail are focusing on coaching their new team, OG Seed, in order to get them to qualify for the upcoming European Open which began on November 28.

n0tail currently also sits atop the list of all-time earnings in esports history at just under $6.9 million.

3. Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen – $3.16 million

Another star on OG’s Dota 2 team, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen balances the team as a Mid player. Topson’s gameplay holds the team together as they rotate around Mid Lane.

Surprisingly, this is only his second year in the professional Dota 2 scene. His previous experience with the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre guided him into becoming a back-to-back championship-winning player. Even with little time as a professional in Dota 2, Topson earned $3.16 million in 2019.

Fun fact about Taavitsainen: he paid the most amount of money in taxes in 2018 among all Finnish athletes and made the most in revenue. It pays to be elite at Dota 2, gamers.

2. Sebastien “Ceb” Debs – $3.16 million

Sebastien “Ceb” Debs is the Offlaner on OG’s Dota 2 team. Before joining OG and claiming one of the top five spots for the highest earners in esports, he took part on numerous teams. Starting from Team Shakira in 2011, eventually landing with Alliance and now at OG, Ceb shows that time and experience can make a difference and birth champions. In 2019, Ceb earned $3.16 million, the exact same as Topson.

Ceb became the first French player to win an International and is revered in his home country for it. He was the cover athlete for a huge magazine called L’Equipe in November.

1. Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka – $3.16 million

Like Topson and Ceb, Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka earned $3.16 million in 2019. Dota 2’s The International is currently the only esports tournament to offer a prize pool of such caliber. JerAx became involved with OG about 3 years ago, helping pull the group together before winning TI8 and TI9.

OG was the first team to win back-to-back Internationals, making one question whether JerAx was truthful when he said “I don’t expect OG to compete at TI next year with this lineup. However, anything can still happen. If our team doesn’t continue, my teammates have motivated me to this point, then what would it feel like to play with new people?”

He probably believes what he said, but how can they not want to defend their title? Although team turmoil isn’t new to OG. Ana briefly left the team in 2018 only to come back and help them win. They may also be content with the fact they each won more than $3 million in both of the previous two years, and want to strictly focus on coaching OG Seed.

Infographic presented by Repeat.gg

Winning tournaments is not the only way to win money in gaming, but being the best at the most lucrative tournament in the world easily dictates the highest financial earners in esports. These grand prizes will continue attracting fans, blooming the esports industry.

Repeat.gg has several free-to-enter tournaments currently live! Sign up now and compete in League of Legends or Dota 2 tournaments. Be sure to check back in February when we’re expected to launch Fortnite as well as other games coming soon.

Repeat is one of the best esports tournament platforms for users to compete for cash and coins, but how do you earn those coins? Let us count the ways.

Have you signed up with Repeat.gg and are looking for ways to earn coins, which can be redeemed for awesome prizes? There are plenty of avenues to earn coins, you just have to make sure you’re taking advantage of them all. This article will list out every way you can earn coins with the website currently. Good luck, and happy earning!

Repeat.gg has no limit on the number of tournaments you can enter at the same time, Scores are only recorded after the user has registered to a tournament. You can increase your chances of winning cash or coins by joining every tournament option available free or paid entry.

If you see 3 x $500 Free Play tournaments than you have just tripled your chances of winning more cash!

Once you’ve purchased or earned coins, you can earn even more coins by entering tournaments that feature a coin entry. These coin entry tournaments are the best way to earn coins that can be redeemed for Amazon gift cards, RP cards, and cash for your Steam account.

The best part? There is no limit to the amount of tournaments you can enter, and they will all keep track of your ranked game play at the same time. You can be winning several tournaments at the same time!

Believe it or not, there are more ways to enter beyond just competing in our tournaments. For example, we hand out a daily bonus of 20 coins just for logging in. This daily bonus can go up to 100 if you login for a month straight.

You can also earn 100 coins by competing in a real money tournament, 50 coins by adding an avatar to your profile, 300 coins when you verify your email with Repeat.gg, 300 coins for adding a game, 500 coins when you compete in your first tournament, and a deposit bonus of 5,000 coins with your first deposit.

Also, when a friend you have invited plays their first challenge you will receive 1,000 coins and they will receive 500 coins. Then for every challenge they play on the site you get an extra 20 coins per game they play for life.

For between $5 and $500, you can make purchases through our website with a valid PayPal account. It’s as easy as just a couple of clicks!

1. Sign up / Login to Repeat.gg
2. Click Buy Coins at the top right of the website

3. Choose the amount of coins you wish to purchase.
4. Purchase coins via PayPal or with a balance transfer of real money in your account (if you have any). You will be directed to PayPal if you choose this option

Now that you know a little more about our coin system, get to earning! Also, follow us on Twitter and Facebook where we frequently announce giveaways, free tournaments, and large prize pool tournaments.

Like many sports, the esports industry is not without its share of scandals. These were the biggest esports scandals that took place in 2019.

Esports is currently one of the biggest industries and continues to grow each year. Although it started small, the industry is expected to surpass $1 billion in 2019 in terms of global revenue.

However, just like other major industries, esports has its own fair share of controversies. The previous year was full of scandals about players either cheating in major tournaments or getting involved in-match fixing, and 2019 is no different. The following were some of the biggest esports scandals of 2019.

CS:GO Match Fixing 

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the biggest esports titles in the world. Because of its popularity, it is also one of the favorite titles for esports betting. But there are some people in the world who don’t like to do betting by the rules. During the month of August, six Australian CS:GO players were arrested for alleged match-fixing. The police in the city of Victoria made the arrest, and a number of detectives from the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit and the Organized Crime Intelligence Unit worked together on the investigation.

Assistant commissioner of Victoria Police Neil Paterson said the investigation was the first of its kind by the state.

“Esports is really an emerging sporting industry and with that will come the demand for betting availability on the outcomes of tournaments and matches. These warrants also highlight that police will take any reports of suspicious or criminal activity within esports seriously, and we encourage anyone with information to come forward.”

The police claimed that they got the information about match-fixing as a tip from a betting agency. The agency claimed that the six alleged players were plotting to throw away some matches for some betting purposes. Their scandal had an impact on a total of five matches and 20 bets. The police avoided naming the players and the teams they were involved in, and they didn’t even reveal the tournament. 

XXiF and Ronaldo’s Qualification for the Fortnite World Cup

The Fortnite World Cup was held this year by Epic Games, and it was easily one of the biggest esports tournaments in history. It had a prize pool of $30 million and featured players from all over the world. Epic Games selected these players through the qualifiers stage that was held for several weeks. However, just like other major tournaments, the Fortnite World Cup was no different when it comes to controversies. And the biggest one was the qualification of XXiF, a player who made it to the final event even after cheating in the qualifiers.

During week three of the Fortnite World Cup, a clip surfaced which showed XXiF getting some easy eliminations. The clip showed some Fortnite players purposefully letting themselves get killed by XXiF, thus letting him earn more points in order to qualify for the finals. Moments later, another clip surfaced which featured Ronaldo involved in the same thing. This raised many questions and Epic Games finally decided to investigate the issue. Upon investigating, it was discovered that the two were actually teaming up with other players in order to earn points and were thus banned from competitive play for 14 days.

However, as the ban was short, XXiF and Ronaldo still had many opportunities left to qualify for the finals. And during week 8 of the qualifiers, they played as a duo and secured a spot in the duos portion of the finals. This was not well received by the Fortnite community as many professional players and streamers took it to social media to talk about how poor Epic’s competitive system is. Even DrLupo, one of the biggest Fortnite players in the world, made several tweets in which he talked about how disappointed he was upon seeing cheaters getting qualified for a $30,000,000 tournament. Both XXiF and Ronaldo competed in the finals but were eliminated instantly during a match.

Tfue’s Lawsuit Against FaZe Clan 

The Fortnite community was surely left shocked after Turner “Tfue” Tenney, one of the biggest faces in the esports sector, filed a lawsuit against his former organization FaZe Clan in May 2019. His lawsuit claimed that the organization was not paying him his share of sponsorship money. In addition to this, it was also mentioned that FaZe prevented the Fortnite pro from getting a sponsorship deal from HyperX. 

In response to Tfue’s lawsuit, FaZe made a post on Twitter in which they claimed that they have never collected any tournament winnings, Twitch revenue, YouTube revenue, or any other revenue from the player. The organization added that while Tfue has earned millions as a member of FaZe Clan, they have only collected a total of $60,000 from their partnership.

After a few days, Tfue posted a statement in which he asked FaZe to release his contract. The organization’s owner, Ricky Banks then confirmed that they are working on releasing the contract. In any case, it was a shock for many fans as Tfue always had a great time with his organization since he first joined them in April 2018. 

FaZe’s Jarvis Permanent ban From Fortnite

Epic Games is known for punishing everyone they catch cheating, but the community thinks that they were a little harsh in the case of FaZe Clan’s Jarvis Kayne. In possibly one of the biggest esports scandals of the year, the Fortnite pro received a permanent ban after he uploaded a set of videos on his alternate YouTube channel in which he was using the aimbot software during his matches. However, Epic Games noticed it and delivered a permanent ban.

In his explanation video titled “I’ve been banned from Fortnite (I’m Sorry),” Jarvis claimed that he was making such videos to only provide entertainment for his viewers. However, he didn’t realize the consequences and that he can get banned permanently for it. While some members of the community were totally okay with Epic’s decision, others were against it. They claimed that if XXiF was not permanently banned from the game for cheating in the qualifiers, then the developers should give Jarvis only a warning this time. However, Jarvis is still banned from the game. 

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