Apex Legends is expected to hit $1 billion in total lifetime earnings in 2021. Now EA expects the game to rake in $1 billion per year thanks to its current trajectory.
Apex Legends will soon become EA's latest billion-dollar franchise and join the likes of Madden and FIFA. The BR sensation is expected to hit $1 billion in total revenues just two years after launch, but EA expects Apex to amass serious money-making momentum through next year and beyond. $1 billion is just the start. EA forecasts Apex could start earning a billion dollars every single year from here on out.
The main driver is diversification and access. Apex's mobile version will launch in 2021 and offer a huge new window of spending opportunities to millions of gamers, and the China launch may follow soon after. There's also the launch on Nintendo Switch. EA wants Apex on every storefront, every platform, and everywhere gamers play.
In a recent earnings call, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen discussed how Apex's revenues have grown considerably since 2019:
"Credit is also due to the Respawn teams and the quality of the content that they have been adding to Apex Legends. Apex Legends net booking came in 24% above what we had last year and is off to an incredibly strong start in Q3.
"We started the year expecting Apex Legends to deliver $300 million to $400 million in net bookings, is now on track to deliver more than $500 million. That is Apex will have gone from $0 billion to about $1 billion in lifetime net bookings in just 2 years.
"With this velocity and the addition of mobile, we believe Apex has the potential to grow to $1 billion in net bookings every year. This is what we do. We've done it with FIFA. We've done it with Madden. We've done it with the Sims, and we're doing it again with Apex due to the amazing teams that we have really driving this business."