Apex Legends may be in front of one of the biggest upgrades to the game in recent times. According to leaks shared by HYPERMYST, a notorious Apex Legends leaker, Respawn is planning on making changes to the Ranked playlist, including the removal of dropships and rebalancing the distribution of Ranked Points.
The change is so promising that professional players have already started talking about this potential tweaks, even though these haven't been made official yet. For instance, Team Liquid's player and streamer Tanner "Rogue" Trebb has rated this potential change as "the biggest dub" of all time in Apex Legends.
The most notable change on the list of potential upgrades is the removal of dropships. In Apex Legends, the "dropship" is a spacectaft that carries all of the players on the lobby. At some point, players jump off the spacecraft, allowing them to land on their preferred spot. Logically, players often want to go to places that have plenty of Supply Bins.
Removing dropships means Apex Legends is trying to adress early kills. With players usually prioritizing to land on high-tier loot areas, the first minutes of a match are usually carnage. This obviously has an impact to the rest of the game, affecting the players' experience.
The removal of dropships from Apex Legends isn't something new. In 2024, esports teams suffered this change as the dropship was removed from ALGS, forcing teams to draft POIs, also known as landing locations, in professional competitions. While drafting POIs wouldn't be possible for players, the leak points towards the possibility of giving players random POIs.
While the removal of dropships has stolen the show, players also look forward to know more about the rumors regarding a newer distribution of Ranked Points. Although that in itself is an improvement already, with changes being just around the corner, players now are pleading for better Ranked rewards. After all, that's why players compete in Ranked: better rewards, better competition and, logically, more players.
It's fair to say Apex Legends isn't in its best era. According to Steam charts, Apex Legends has lost around 40,000 players on Steam in the last two months, going back to around 90,000 average players per day — back in May, it was around 134,000. While these numbers don't consider the player figures on console, it seems like Respawn is already trying to figure out what's next for Apex Legends, arguably one of the best battle royales out there. Maybe, just maybe, these Ranked changes could revert the trend.
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