Apex Legends is edging towards its sixth birthday, having been released in February 2019, and while some dips in player activity have soured the half-decade celebrations this year, Season 22 is here to steer the battle royale back on course.

But some unwanted statistics have cropped up on the Apex Legends front, as Season 21 has set some disappointing records for player drop-offs.

Season 22 aims to flip that script though, as Apex Legends Lead BR Designer Eric Canavese told me that now is the best time to get back into the game given all of the changes in Season 22 that apply to the more casual audience.

Apex Legends Designer applauds Season 22’s new skill-enhancing changes

Season 22 has kicked off in style, and the player count has climbed since its debut - peaking higher than it did a month ago.

“We put a lot of stuff into [Season] 22 and honestly, we've had a ton of really positive feedback from players and internally from the team,” said Canavese.

“Even viewers are excited to watch because the meta is shifting, the new map is beautiful to watch, it's really fun to play, and it's promoting some newer playstyles with CQC and akimbos.”

The new E-District map accounts for quite a lot of this hype, alongside some exciting new weapons, but there have been a lot of subtle changes that have been deployed directly towards returning players - or Apex newcomers.

While the vocal loyal players have been lamenting the divisive Mozambiques and different metas that generally see top-picks like Bangalore spread havoc, those who downloaded the game for the first time in a while, or those casual players who play once or twice a week, have been favouring simple HUD tweaks such as health bars.

This new change was primarily aimed at newer players, and while Caustic might have been on the blunt end of it, primarily this will elevate the overall skill level of the community, according to Canavese.

“When you know every single thing about the game and you can calculate the damage in your head that you're dealing, and you know every number that every gun and Legend can produce, putting something in like health bars and highlights doesn't really do anything for them. For the more experienced players - especially the professionals in the top 1% - It's a ‘whatever’ change to them. They were already doing that in their head." 

“But if we look at who that change is for, it's to level up and bring that skill floor up for everybody else so that everybody's playing more fair and even game. We're trying to unlock that base set of knowledge that you should have to be successful in Apex.”

This isn’t the only new feature that has gone down well with the casuals, at no expense of the elite, as LTMs like Bot Royale have helped keep players’ morale high rather than just hitting the dashboard after every skirmish.

“We're always thinking about how to attract new players and retain the players that we've got,” he continued.

“We definitely noticed that, through the development of features that we were keying into this season, we were actually hitting those notes stronger than we had in previous seasons. 

“We did lean into it a little bit more and use this as a great time to get people back into Apex by saying, let's make sure that new players who are coming in experience something that is going to be memorable and lasting because that's sort of what makes Apex so sticky - like Bot Royale.”

Apex Legends dev claims now is the best time to ‘jump back in’

There’s no denying that prior to Season 22, Apex Legends was in a somewhat sticky situation, as the meta compositions had become nuanced and hard to learn, while the live-service content had slowed down to a point where players didn’t have much reason to log on unless it was to grind the Ranked mode.

Now, Canavese claims that Respawn has added enough new features and tweaks to existing mechanisms that now is the best time to get back into Apex Legends.

“Season 22 has been crazy. It's a great time to jump into Apex because it's so new, the meta has reset, and everybody is back down to the same level because there's so much to re-learn,” he told me.

Juggling the different levels of skill from the player base has always been a difficulty for games that have been around for years. 

A lot of titles lean into the high-end community and push the esports scene forward, accepting that the best way to get players interested in the game is through showing off the best of the best and hoping that others want to follow suit.

Apex, however, still has a lot of influence with the casual gaming community and has opted to offer something for all skill levels with mechanics like the health bar, shield changes, and bin resets, all designed to help players get up to speed while existing legends re-learn the entire game.

Canavese claims this juggling act is often a key element of how Respawn usually goes about new changes, but now more than ever.

“If this change is better for the newer players, we'll really lean into that to a point where it likely experience players just won't care about that - and that's okay. It's okay to have features that are for players who have spent thousands of hours in the game in favour of those with 10 hours in the game too."

With bin resets especially, this was designed with all players in mind, although its primary benefit is for those players who might need a bigger helping hand towards 

"I think that's just good for everyone. It's just a pacing mechanism that anybody in the game can engage with. Experienced players are going to look at that and say, ‘Cool, I can finish my loadout,’ and less experienced players, newer players, will say, ‘I don't know how to loot very well, oh, bin reset happens, the things near me now contain stuff that I know will be valuable for me.’ 

"That was one of those where everybody gets to enjoy because everybody needs loot."

Apex Legends is back in its finest form in Season 22, and there is space for everyone on the dropship.