Apex Legends hits mobile in 2021, EA 'very optimistic' on China launch

EA confirms Apex Legends will hit mobile devices sometime in its FY22 period, which extends from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022.

Apex Legends has been huge for EA's digital growth. The F2P BR routinely pulls in hundreds of millions in monetization every year since its 2019 launch, and naturally EA sees the lootbox-monetized live game as a prime candidate to tap the $77 billion mobile market. Now we finally have a release window for Apex's mobile launch.

According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, Apex will drop on mobiles sometime in 2021--the same year it'll release on Nintendo Switch. Apex is so powerful that EA wants it making money on as many platforms as possible.

"In addition, Apex mobile development will be complete in the new year and ready for launch in FY '22," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a recent Q2'21 earnings call.

Wilson also confirms some other interesting tidbits:

• Japan is the #2 market for Apex Legends
• EA "very optimistic" on Apex port in China

"Our live services are positioned to be a long-term growth driver. Having built Apex Legends into an amazing live service with a deeply engaged community, the talented Respawn team in Los Angeles has expanded Apex development to include a full team in our Vancouver location, so that we can continue delivering more great content. Japan is now our second largest market for Apex Legends, and we have strong plans to continue growth in that region."

CFO Blake Jorgensen says EA is still optimistic on a Chinese launch:

"What we know is with our partners in China, we are very optimistic. But guessing approvals is really difficult. But we're optimistic. We believe that this is something that we can ultimately get approval on."

A mobile port could also surge mTX spending in Japan, Apex's no. 2 region:

"As we talked about, the Japanese market is one of the largest markets for Apex, second largest in the world," Jorgensen said.

"We believe that there's a huge opportunity for mobile in that market. And so we will continue to focus on where we think those largest markets are for early rollout, and we'll keep people informed as we start to test the game and get it into the market. But I think, as Andrew said, in his comments, we believe that's coming in the coming fiscal '22. And we're excited -- we're very excited about the opportunity there."