Apex Legends' popularity and meta depend on the pick rate of its various characters, and there are some that will always come out of top. Wraith and Octane remain very popular Apex Legends characters, despite the plethora of legends added since then. Typically, the new character for every season launches to the top before settling into its meta, and that’s unfortunate for Newcastle.
As seen below, Newcastle is now the third least picked legend. Newcastle’s pick rate has fallen to a paltry 2.2%, while Mad Maggie and Crypto are both at 1.7%. Apex Legends fans are looking for reasons why, with there being a couple of notable elements at play here.
Apex Legends – Low Pick Rates
The first reason is how meta characters dominate the pick rates. Several characters are simply better than others, and for a time, Apex Legends was dealing with a serious issue of power inflation. Valkyrie is a prime example of a legend who does too much, and Seer launched in an OP state too. This made several characters seem less worthwhile than others, and it appears that Respawn may be overcorrecting.
For example, the newest legend is Newcastle, and his kit is interesting but comes with several weaknesses and counters. His mobile shield can be broken easily enough, and his ultimate is as likely to hurt him as it is to help him. Mad Maggie, meanwhile, is a more counter-focused assault class, but that makes her largely situational. It’s not even that—it’s just the fact that, with so many assault characters, she’s outclassed.
It's not just meta, though, as these above examples also show issues with class saturation. Apex Legends dev Respawn has publicly mused about not adding a character every season, and that’s showing through here too. It’s perhaps worst with Crypto. If someone wants to play a scanning/recon character, with several characters having some way to scan, Bloodhound and Seer are going to come out on top every time. Even Crypto’s buffs weren’t enough in Apex Legends to compete with other characters in the same class.
The same goes for Newcastle and Mad Maggie. The latter is going to get outplayed by every assault class in Apex Legends, while someone seeking a defensive legend will find a stronger tank in Gibraltar. All in all, class saturation, power inflation, and more mean that Respawn will eventually need to find a better way to balance the growing roster.
Apex Legends is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.