With the launch of Apex Legends season 16 on February 14, Respawn Entertainment will be sunsetting the Arenas Mode, introducing Team Deathmatch, and making a plethora of other changes. This includes a reworked class system and major changes to some Apex Legends characters, a new gun in the form of The Nemesis, and much, much more.
As many fans may recall, Apex Legends' Arenas Mode was introduced back in season 9. It is a 3v3 game mode where players buy their loadouts and face off against another team in a series of head-on battles. It was well-received at launch, with the game mode eventually adding its own Ranked system, but after a few months of stagnation, it seems Respawn is ready to move beyond this game mode.
It's certainly bittersweet for fans of Arenas, but Respawn isn't taking it away without something to replace it. For the first weeks of Apex Legends season 16, fans will be able to check out a new game mode in Team Deathmatch. A classic in the multiplayer space, fans can probably form some solid expectations around the game mode's name, but Respawn isn't replacing a game mode with a short LTM either. After TDM for the first three weeks of Apex Legends season 16, Respawn will introduce a new Mixtape rotation playlist.
The Mixtape rotation playlist will be a permanent addition to the game, and when it launches, it'll rotate through three game modes: the aforementioned Team Deathmatch, Gun Run, and Control. Gun Run, as many fans know, is Apex Legends' take on the popular Call of Duty game mode Gun Game, where players must earn kills with each weapon as they cycle through, and the player/team who gets a kill with the last weapon wins.
Control is perhaps the biggest winner here, as although it is another classic FPS game mode, it has always been incredibly popular in Apex Legends. Fans have been asking for Apex Legends' Control game mode to be permanent for a long time, and now it will be to some degree. It stands to reason that the Mixtape rotation playlist could eventually add more game modes and/or rotate others out for some time, but it's exciting nonetheless.
Apex Legends is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.