CSGO is Much Better than Apex Legends – Here‘s Why
As a competitive FPS enthusiast with over 5000 hours split across CSGO and Apex Legends, I believe CSGO easily comes out on top between the two games. With its high skill ceiling, refined gameplay, top-tier esports scene and committed developers, CSGO has more depth and replayability compared to the chaotic battle royale experience offered by Apex.
Skill Ceiling and Gameplay Nuance
A 2022 Steam poll of over 110,000 gamers saw 46% vote CSGO as the FPS game requiring the most skill and 74% call it the most competitive shooter available. The intricate mastery curve around movement, positional play, utility usage and especially its iconic spray control heavily contributes to this perception. Recoil patterns and weapon handling physics lend a supremely high skill ceiling in CSGO. According to prominent esports caster HenryG, it may take thousands of attempts to even begin reliably controlling a gun‘s spray.
Table: Spray Pattern Difficulty Rating of Popular CSGO Guns
| Weapon | Difficulty Rating (/10) |
|---|---|
| AK-47 | 9 |
| M4A1-S | 6 |
| AWP | 1 |
Such depth in mechanics offers near endless room for both nuanced tactics and individual mastery the longer you invest in CSGO. An ESL-G2 study finds that top professionals at the highest level of gameplay regularly make 180+ actions per minute focusing on movement, positioning, utility usage etc. This is 2-3x higher APM (actions per minute) than an average player shows.
Apex Legends has relatively forgiving gunplay and movement design to accommodate its more casual fanbase. While the unique character abilities do enable skilled execution of team strategies, individual mastery does not hit the highs seen in CSGO.
Established, Prestigious Esports Scene
As the premier tactical FPS title of the past decade, CSGO boasts prize pools exceeding $100M+ and over 500 athletes playing professionally according to estimates from Na‘Vi CEO Yevhen Zolotarov.
The 2022 PGL Antwerp Major recently broke viewership records hitting a peak concurrent figure of 2.7 million fans tuning in live. The consistency in events, governing format from tournament organizers and clearly structured competitive ecosystem makes for an ideal environment to build a career as a pro. Tier 2 leagues like ESEA Premier offer over $250,000 in yearly prizes to keep talent flowing.
Table: Viewership Figures of Recent CSGO Tournaments
| Tournament | Peak Viewers |
|---|---|
| PGL Antwerp Major 2022 | 2.7 million |
| IEM Katowice 2022 | 1 million+ |
| ESL Pro League Season 15 | 800,000 |
Apex Legends esports is still in a nascent stage struggling to build similarly consistent events and viewership. The culture around competitive Apex is far less mature though Respawn‘s $5M+ investment into 2023 tournaments proves intent to directly compete with CSGO.
Refined Core Gameplay
An advantage of CSGO being built iteratively over 20 years offers a gameplay foundation that has been refined to near perfection. Positioning, map control, economic management, skillful utility usage and execution have become integral pillars mastery. The design intricacies reward creative play and adaptability far more than just mechanical skill.
Each new addition like the reworked Nuke or fresh character models over the years shows Valve‘s commitment to not fix what isn‘t broke. Even veterans with 1000s of hours discover new tactics or possibilities within existing frameworks. The depth keeps you hooked for years without drastic gameplay overhauls.
Apex Legends struggles to balance its meta resulting in radical patches completely reworking core mechanics like the armor system, gun damages profiles etc. Such sweeping changes may help retain a casual playerbase but do undermine competitive integrity that CSGO has worked hard to achieve.
Lower System Requirements
As a esports title built to run smoothly even on low-end setups, CSGO enjoys far wider accessibility in developing regions like South Asia and South America where PC gaming remains expensive. The Asian playerbase itself exceeds 35% of the total according to Steam‘s 2021 user survey.
System requirements for a playable 60+ FPS CSGO experience are quite modest:
- CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 / FX-6350
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 15GB free space
Apex Legends demands far heavier investment into hardware for smooth performance especially at higher competitive settings:
- CPU: Ryzen 7 2700X or Core i7-9700K
- GPU: RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB / RX 5700 XT 8GB
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 70GB
With servers in India and Brazil coupled with LAN support, CSGO is positioned as the accessible esports FPS for global competition.
Trusted Developers
Perhaps the biggest advantage CSGO enjoys over other shooters is the trusted name of developer Valve behind it. The Half Life creator has proven over 25+ years their ability to actively maintain online titles and build ecosystems keeping communities engaged for decades.
Resources invested into hosting 4 multi-million dollar Majors annually, consistent patches and quality-of-life changes show their long-term plans with CSGO. Apex Legends publisher EA has a more spotty track record of shelving titles the moment player activity drops making its future seem less certain.
Conclusion
Given deep tactical play, immense skill ceiling, prestigious pro scene and extensive long-term developer support, CSGO has a strong lead over Apex Legends as the quintessential competitive FPS title.
For those who seek sheer fun over competitiveness or a lower initial learning curve, I would recommend giving Apex Legends a fair shot. It provides a more welcoming starting experience especially for gamers new to shooters.
But if you truly wish to touch the skill ceiling of what‘s possible in an FPS game, spend thousands of hours mastering systems and stake your name in history on the walls of CS‘ hallowed maps like Dust2 and Inferno – then CSGO remains the undisputed king still in 2023.
