Competition is something that benefits consumers, but developers can suffer greatly. Apex Legends has been on quite a rough patch recently: the game is attacked by cheaters, aggressive bugs occur, and developers offer a new battle pass that players don't want to buy.
If we look at the numbers of peak online players, we can see that Apex Legends has been in a prolonged negative trend. These numbers were only seen at the launch of the game when the project was still getting off the ground.
Image: steamdb.info
So, what are the issues with Apex Legends? Much like the stagnation period of Overwatch, the situation is quite comparable. There are Limited Time Events that have almost nothing new except for skins. Problems with cheaters, imperfect matchmaking, and a lack of gameplay variety are causing players to look elsewhere.
Now, Marvel Heroes has been released, and it seems that it's not only taking players from Overwatch. Fortnite continues to ride the hype and offer various ways to spend time. Players are waiting for decisive action and something new from Respawn, but until that arrives, people are leaving. Developers have a big headache ahead, and we'll see how they handle this situation.
