With the drastic increase in “battle royale” style video games over the past couple years, “Apex Legends” brings a new light to the seemingly over saturated genre.

While each new battle royale game brings in some new aspects to differentiate themselves from the crowd, they all have a few “set in stone” concepts. These games all feature large maps filled with many types of guns and armor to discover and equipt, all while fighting against around 100 other players in an all-out free for all where the last man standing is crowned the winner.

Apex, released February 4, 2019, is one of the newest members to the battle royale gaming category. Its release came very unexpected, as developers EA and Respawn decided to go without any pre-release marketing campaign. This “ghost drop” of the game, however, proved to be a genius idea, as Apex hit 50 million players in just one month.

The game is unlike many other battle royale games due to the fact that it didn’t just change one or two details to the genre; it modified basically all aspects, looked at its competitors and improved on every detail.

Some of these new elements introduced to battle royale in Apex include specific “legends” to choose from, all bringing unique abilities to synergize with teammates, a dynamic communication system that surrounds “pinging” enemies and objects around the map to alert other, and the ability to respawn an eliminated teammate, keeping everyone involved in the game even after you’re taken out. With these new changes made, not only has Apex been able to dramatically diversify itself from the rest of the battle royale-style games, its set a new standard for what online multiplayer games should include; great in-game mechanics, interesting new environments and abilities and an emphasis on teamwork.

Apex isn’t only popular for its new additions to battle royale, however, it’s also a game that can be played by almost any person. It’s available for free on all consoles and PC, meaning any gamer and can download and play without any hassle. The game developers make their money through in-game “loot boxes” that can be purchased by players in exchange for cosmetic items that that alter the appearances of their characters. This decision to make Apex free was a risky one, but it’s obviously paid off as the game is projected to generate almost 3 billion dollars in its first year, given that it can keep its player retention rate at the level it’s at now.

As “Apex Legends” continues to grow in popularity, so does the battle royale genre. Just when players were starting to think that this gaming category had dried up, EA and Respawn joined in with their revolutionary addition. At the moment, Apex looks to be only climbing higher in terms of gaming records and statistics, with almost no other titles standing in its way.