The playing habits of those who populate Apex Legends’ endless array lobbies are constantly evolving, with new content releases and patches regularly altering the state of the game and giving players ample opportunity to develop new strategies and preferences.
Naturally, these changes often come in the form of players flocking to new characters like Newcastle whenever they’re added, seeking a chance to try something new.
However, sometimes an update can have unintended consequences, as has happened with Apex’s Season 13, which has seen Lifeline unexpectedly return to prominence.
Apex Legends Players Are Picking Lifeline Over Newcastle
Posting in the Apex Legends subreddit, user Salt_Concentrate2937 shared a short clip of a graph showing the percentages of players opting to play as Newcastle and Lifeline, with the latter having overtaken the former in popularity recently.
Multiple theories as to why this trend has emerged were offered in the thread that followed, with Apex veterans offering their expert analysis.
Some thought it was indicative of players deciding that Lifeline offers a better or more effective playstyle than Newcastle, with one user suggesting: “Lifeline’s kit is more solo friendly than Newcastle’s, as well as Newcastle’s tactical being a learning curve,” while another said: “being able to fight while reviving is a great equaliser.”
Meanwhile, others thought an economic impetus might be fuelling the change, with blingx2 saying: “Honestly it's because she's a free legend. Nobody is going to buy Newcastle if there are other legends available.”
User SKy6Gaming added that this monetary reality is why they don’t believe the trend is “indicative of anything.”
User SuperGamer1894, on the other hand, suggested the graph illustrates that: “tons of Lifeline mains are going back to her after trying Newcastle.”
This led jerm_face01 to offer an alternative explanation, saying: “It’s Newcastle’s (pick rate) that has a huge increase and decline while Lifeline’s doesn’t change much. My guess would be non-Lifeline mains trying Newcastle then slowly transitioning back to their respective characters.”
Whichever theory you want to believe, make sure to follow us for more updates on Season 13 of Apex Legends, which kicked off last month.
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