One chart perfectly demonstrates the meteoric rise of 'Apex Legends,' the huge new Battle Royale game from EA that's already got over 25 million players

"Apex Legends"/Electronic Arts

• Game publisher Electronic Arts has a sudden megahit on its hands with "Apex Legends," a free Battle Royale game for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
• In less than a week, over 25 million people played "Apex Legends" - a much faster growth rate than even "Fortnite."
• There's no sign of "Apex" slowing down, and one chart perfectly demonstrates just how fast the game went from unknown to wildly popular.

It's hard to overstate how explosively popular "Apex Legends" has been. 

The free Battle Royale game launched on February 4, and - less than a week later - over 25 million people had already played it. During the game's first weekend, it had "well over 2 million concurrent players" at one point.

But all of those are just abstract numbers without additional context, and this chart from Australian financial portfolio manager Thomas Rice offers exactly that:

As you can see above, "Apex Legends" grew from nothing to 25 million players in just seven days. For "Fortnite" to achieve the same growth, it took 41 days.

To be clear, "Fortnite" also grew rapidly.

Like "Apex Legends," the Battle Royale mode of "Fortnite" was free at launch in September 2017. It was only available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC - also like "Apex" - before expanding to Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android devices across the following year.

Simply put: Comparing the two games is relatively straightforward, and EA's "Apex Legends" is already off to a stronger start than the biggest gaming phenomenon since "Minecraft." Pretty impressive!

EA/Google

There was a sharp increase following the launch of "Apex Legends" on February 4.

It's no surprise that EA's stock price reflects the wild, sudden success of "Apex Legends." 

The game is the first hit from EA in quite some time, and its first straight-up blockbuster in the past several years. Recent entries in the "Battlefield" and "Star Wars Battlefront" series have failed to meet critical and commercial expectations, and the publisher has become more and more reliant on its annual sports games in the "FIFA" and "Madden" franchises.

With "Apex Legends," EA has a bonafide hit on its hands - and there's no sign of it slowing down.

Check out the latest video from the game's creator, Respawn Entertainment, below:

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