What happened
Shares of video game maker Electronic Arts (EA 0.11%) jumped as much as 12.9% after the company announced strong engagement for the recently released Apex Legends. At 11:30 a.m. EST, shares were near their high for the day, trading up 12.8%.
So what
Management announced that battle royale game Apex Legends drew 10 million players in its first 72 hours. That's an incredibly fast pace of adoption and may finally eat into Fortnite's domination of the battle royale market.
Image source: Getty Images.
The move comes only a day after EA and other video game stocks dropped due to weak fourth-quarter results and 2019 guidance. The tepid guidance was largely due to Fortnite taking market share, so this may be a sign the company will take some share back.
Check out the latest earnings call transcript for Electronic Arts.
Now what
Three days doesn't make a new game a success, but investors are hoping it'll stem some of the market share losses to Fortnite over the past year. Every major game developer is trying to copy the battle royale concept, and early indications are that EA may have a hit on its hands. I wouldn't go all in on results this early, but over the next few quarters, we should see Apex Legends be a meaningful part of the company's results.
