Apex Legends pro player and streamer Jacob ‘HisWattson’ McMillin has revealed conversations he had with internal staff working on the game, which he believes explains its current decline in players.
In 2024, Apex Legends has declined rapidly in terms of player count, at least based on the public figures for Steam. On Christmas day, the game hit a new low since it was added to Steam, bottoming out at as little as 46,000.
The community has many theories about the cause of the decline. Typically three main reasons are given: Lack of new content, the Ranked mode, and competition from other games that are newer or more exciting.
HisWattson blames “Upper Management” of Apex Legends
However, HisWattson believes there is another reason as well, and it comes down to the management Apex internally at Respawn and EA.
Wattson explains that he has “spoken to countless Respawn employees from various departments over the years, from art, security, map designers to game balancers to community managers, playtesters, etc.”
“I have heard two gloomy phrases they have all repeated: ‘We want to do (blank), but we’re not allowed,’ or, ‘All our suggestions fall on deaf ears.’
“Both of which imply one major problem. Upper management is either negligent, lazy, or has motives that do not align with the players best interests,” HisWattson claimed.
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“Almost every Respawn employee I’ve worked with directly was absolutely dripping with talent and passion for the game, but they’re being actively suppressed by the people above them on the totem pole.
“It has been incredibly sad to listen to them slowly lose passion for the game and most of them quite frankly sound like they’ve given up at this point, and it sucks to listen to.”
HisWattso also highlighted that EA actively suppresses community-made content, explaining that rivals like Minecraft and Fortnite support and encourage user-generated content.
Meanwhile, Apex Legends modders, and anyone who talks about the mods, are “actively shunned” by Respawn, HisWattson said.
Fellow pro player ImperialHal has also spoken extensively on the state of Apex, and laid out his own plan to fix it.