Apex Legends was leaked last year, but nobody believed it

Apex Legends, the battle royale shooter that came out of nowhere asa worthy challenger toFortnite, was actually leaked last yearon Reddit.

Apex Legendsquickly escalated froma mere rumorin early February to a massivly successful game with more than1 million playersin just eight hours after launch. Set in theTitanfalluniverse, the battle royale shooter was not hyped up prior to its release — which makes its ascent that much more intriguing.

The game wouldn’t have been such a massive surprise if people had believed a leak that was posted on the forum last year, aspointed outby a Reddit user who goes by name of Fubbles22. He created a thread on theApex Legendssub-Reddit that linked to a post on theTitanfallsub-Reddit titled “Alleged Minimap for Rumored Titanfall Battle Royal Game.”

The11-month-old threadcontains a surprising image forApex Legendsfans. Some of the names of the areas and its orientation were changed, but the leaked image is undoubtedly the King’s Canyon map that is currently playable.

On the original thread, Reddit users criticized the person who uploaded the image, who goes by the name “hiticonic.” There were only 14 comments in the thread, but most of them thought that the alleged leak was fake.

Meanwhile, in the new thread that linked to the leak from a year ago, community manager Jay Frechette joined the discussion. “Haha I remember this! It was a relief to see folks blow it off and I was thinking, ‘well, he’ll be able to say I was right when next year comes along’,” he wrote.

Hiticonic also appeared on the thread, jokingly asking for the upvotes that he should have received last year when he posted the leak. He also denied allegations that he was an employee of Respawn, but did not reveal how he got a hold of theApex Legendsmap last year.

Leaked or not,Apex Legendsis here. Respawn Entertainment has since released a few updates since the game’s launch, including theHavoc energy rifleas the first new gun. For gamers interested in finding out what the fuss is all about, here is anApex Legendsbeginner’s guide.