EA is "pretty motivated" for an Apex Legends "linear" adaptation as it eyes Cyberpunk: Edgerunners success

It seems EA is bringing its battle royale title, Apex Legends, from the gaming scene to film or TV, or potentially both. This news comes from EA Entertainment President Laura Miele, who’s pretty confident in the upcoming project. 

In an interview with Variety, Miele shared that EA is “pretty motivated” to adapt the blockbuster battle royale, which is set in the same universe as Titanfall and takes place after the events of Titanfall 2, shaping the world of Apex Legends as we know it.

While fans have enjoyed multiple stories from Apex Legends’ Outlands, there are still loads of untapped stories that remain untold. With that said, the game’s narrative-rich universe could translate pretty well into a film or TV series, for that matter. In the interview, Miele further shared:

“Players don’t have all the backstory, the history, and there’s just rich worlds and rich history with these characters and these legends that can come to life through linear media and partnerships.”

EA aims to “respect and uphold the brand and the franchise,” considering the large player base of Apex Legends. Within the first three days, Apex Legends welcomed 10 million players and passed the 50 million mark toward the end of its launch month. However, only a fraction of the player base is active these days. As of March 2024, the Apex Legends IP has generated over $3.4 billion in lifetime bookings.

The company might be trying to reclaim some of its lost player base alongside attracting newcomers in an approach seen with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Netflix’s Devil May Cry adaptation. Both titles regained significant interest from gamers, including new players as well as users replaying titles in the franchise directly as a result of their subsequent TV releases. 

To understand the scale of the player base in play for the free-to-play title, Apex Legends has accrued 674,522 positive reviews with a “Mixed User Score” out of 1,003,668 user ratings, according to SteamDB. The game had an all-time peak of 624,473 concurrent players 2.5 years ago. The game’s player base remains strong, however, with a 24-hour user peak of 180,304 and 79,849 players at the time of writing.

Apex Legends fans have been clamoring for deeper storytelling for a long time, especially since the last miniseries animation, “Kill Code,” premiered in November 2023 for Apex Legends Season 19.