Apex Legends vs Fortnite: Who is the King of Battle Royale?

Battle Royale is all the rage right now. We’ll admit, it’s hard to deny the appeal of duking it out with dozens of other players in the ultimate deathmatch. With the genre’s growing popularity, countless titles have emerged to compete for the throne.

Apex Legends and Fortnite are two of the biggest, both boasting their own distinct selection of mechanics, visual motifs and reasons for players to stick around and master everything about them. We’re a big fan of both here at Trusted Reviews, so it’s a surprise we ever get anything done.

So we’ve gone ahead and compiled the core differences between Apex Legends and Fortnite to help you decide which battle royale is perfect for you!

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Apex Legends vs Fortnite Gameplay – How do they work?

Aside from the prime objective of emerging victorious amidst loads of other players, Apex Legends and Fortnite are very different in how they play. Let’s start with Apex, a first-person shooter by Respawn Entertainment that takes the best of Titanfall and expands on it with the battle royale formula.

You can select from a variety of ‘Legends’ each with their own unique skills and abilities. Pathfinder is capable of extending a zipline to help your three-person squad escape danger. Bloodhound, on the other hand, can scan the area for nearby enemies, ensuring you never venture into the battleground.

There’s so much flexibility, and Respawn has guaranteed it will grow with the future updates and the upcoming Battle Pass implementation. Apex also has a smaller player count, capping out at 60 players, although Respawn has said this could change with later maps.

We personally find the squad layout of Apex to work perfectly, although wouldn’t say no to solo-play if it arrived later down the line. Working with three friends as you each adopt a distinct role is thrilling, made even better by the innovative Ping System.

The Ping System lets you notify players of loot, enemies and potential locations to explore with the touch of a button. If you aren’t a fan of voice chat or find yourself playing with strangers, it’s a wonderful way of ensuring teamwork always remains at the forefront.

As far as shooting mechanics, dynamic teamplay and innovative class systems go, Apex Legends is the finest in the genre, and only shows potential to grow with coming updates. If the audience remains interested, it has an exciting future ahead of it.

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Now, let’s move onto Fortnite. Epic Games’ colourful take on battle royale is one of the world’s most popular games. This is for good reason, as Fortnite receives frequent updates that feature oodles of creativity.

These can come in the form of seasonal events or huge, world-shifting changes such as in-game concerts or cracks opening up in the sky to another reality. Anything can happen in the world of Fortnite, and Epic Games has used this rule to its advantage.

As to how it plays, Fortnite is a third-person shooter enhanced by unique building mechanics. The second you and 99 other players parachute from the Battle Bus you’ll be free to gather resources and equipment from across the map.

Building comes into play during firefights as you’re desperately constructing cover to protect yourself from gunfire while simultaneously planning your next move. The strategy here is fascinating, and undoubtedly why Fortnite is so damn appealing.

Outside of squads, duos and solo play, Fortnite is always introducing bespoke modes that only last for a limited time. Playground is an exception, a playlist which drops you into the map and gives you free reign to construct things with its building tools.

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Both Apex Legends and Fortnite are growing with fascinating new additions every day, using the free-to-play model to its advantage to surprise players with oftentimes ludicrous surprises. Epic Games’ foray has numbers of its side, but from a gameplay perspective, Apex is arguably the smoother and more satisfying experience.

Apex Legends vs Fortnite Platforms – Where can I play them?

Apex Legends is currently available for PS4, Xbox One and PC. It’s yet to venture into the land of Nintendo Switch and mobile, which gives Fortnite the obvious advantage here as it dominates those platforms.

Apex Legends vs Fortnite Cosmetics – How snazzy are they?

As we’ve established here, Apex Legends has some utterly fabulous cosmetics on offer through its in-game lootboxes. However, they’re all restrained to the game’s universe, while Fortnite takes far more liberties with the outfits and emotes it hurls into the fray.

Fortnite has unleashed skins inspired by major sporting events, films, music videos and more, although never quite directly references them for fear of probably getting in trouble. That aside, there’s an immense amount of variety in Fortnite, with some of its emotes having already become iconic in the cultural zeitgeist.

Apex Legends is still in its infancy, but already has a healthy range of common, rare and legendary skins for each character. They’re nothing remotely memorable, but finding a favourite amidst the hundreds of lovely colour schemes and designs in undeniably joyful.

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Apex Legends vs Fortnite Player Count – How big it it?

First up, how many people can you cram into a single game? At the time of writing, Apex Legends supports 60 while Fortnite storms ahead with 100. However, this can differ depending on the modes you’re playing.

To be honest, player count is little more than a number that doesn’t contribute massively to how fun each of these battle royale experiences are to play. That is, unless you’re desperate to kill as many people as possible.

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Apex Legends vs Fortnite Updates – How frequent are they?

This is a bit of an unfair comparison to make at the moment given that Fortnite has been around for a couple of years now, while Apex Legends is just a handful of weeks old. That being said, both are making strides to keep players interested going forward.

Respawn Entertainment has detailed the coming year of content which will include new characters, weapons, skins and oodles of other loot to get your hands on. Much of this will be obtainable via the upcoming battle pass.

Fortnite has been following the battle pass model for several seasons now, with each one following a unique theme alongside the game’s changing world. You can follow the free model or purchase V-Bucks to adopt the paid one which comes with a bunch of exclusive goodies.

This normally includes a duo of skins alongside a few emotes and sprays to use. You’re also given a head-start as you’re pushed forward through experience tiers. It’s ultimately just a cosmetic touch to show off to your friends, but a worthwhile progression system in its own right.

Are you a fan of Apex Legends or Fortnite? Which one is our favourite? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter @trustedreviews.