The last time Apex Legends popped up in the news it was related to an attempt to rework the game’s battle pass system. Unfortunately, that backfired with fans review bombing the game on Steam as a consequence of the unpopular changes. Now, we’re in the hitherto-unforeseen area of a second backfiring event, with a U-turn on the battle pass update being met not with relief but further negative reviews.

Developer Respawn aimed to give the Apex Legends battle pass a revamp with better rewards, offsetting this with a change to how players gained access to them. Before, players could use Apex Coins to grab each new pass, earning enough from previous passes to fund their next purchase. The new system for the battle royale game would require real money transactions in addition to doubling how many battle passes would be released per season. You can see how this would not go down well with fans of the game – and if by clockwork, Apex Legends’ Steam review score began to plummet.

Last week, however, the developer announced that it would let players use Apex Coins to purchase battle passes in the same way as in previous seasons. On the face of it this should have ameliorated the community’s anger towards the game but the opposite appears to have happened, with Apex Legends now struggling not only with Steam reviews but also beginning to experience a downturn in player numbers.

YouTube ThumbnailCurrently on Steam Apex Legends is sitting on an ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ review score, with only 7% of reviews in the last 30 days being positive. This isn’t just the work of a few people either, as at the time of writing the game has been reviewed 85,929 times since the start of July. The majority of these followed the announcement of the battle pass changes, but even in the days following the U-turn these poor ratings have continued to pour in. Now citing problems with cheaters, matchmaking, and the game’s anti-cheat system as the primary reasons for negatively reviewing Apex Legends – it seems community sentiment has firmly turned against the title.

Player numbers have also been hit by this souring, with a decline over recent weeks potentially pointing at problems ahead. While the number of players concurrently in-game on Steam is still extremely respectable, they are the lowest Apex Legends has seen since January of 2022. Though this may still be arrested pending future updates, it does indicate the game’s troubles are far from over and the developer faces a long battle to win back the audience it once had.

The SteamDB graph for Apex Legends showing the recent decline in player numbers.

If this has you itching to try out the game instead, our Apex Legends characters guide and Apex Legends skins list will get your battle royale journey started the right way.

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