The highest ranked Apex Legends players consistently drop in just three locations
And two of them aren't Skull Town.
An Apex player has used a tracking program to to analyse data from over 120,000 matches to find out where the most popular drop locations are in the arena.
Reddit user ZYy9oQ has created heatmaps to help illustrate the data, and, unsurprisingly, Skull Town continues to be a fan favourite. It's here and Market where players consistently seem to land - though season two's ranked mode shows a lot more variety, with players exploring locations a lot further across the arena.
![](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/apex_drops_s1.png?width=690&quality=75&format=jpg&auto=webp)
![](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/apex_drops_s2.png?width=690&quality=75&format=jpg&auto=webp)
The heatmap below doesn't show the popular drops, but the differences in areas dropped between ranks, with locations marked as white or grey showing about an even spread from bronze to predator.
![](https://assetsio.gnwcdn.com/apex_drops_hvl.png?width=690&quality=75&format=jpg&auto=webp)
Separate images for popularity of drop locations by rank can be found here - interestingly, the highest level players seem to have three particularly favoured drop zones; Skull Town, Hydro Dam and Swamps, while lower ranks are a lot more spread out in the arena.
Skull Town and Swamps makes a reasonable amount of sense, as both are high tier loot areas, unlike Hydro Dam which only has low to medium level loot.
As ZYy9oQ points out in their post, this data should be taken with a pinch of salt, as there are a lot fewer matches at predator level than there are at the lower ranks. Even still, it gives an idea of how higher level players might approach the game differently to everyone else.
The tracking program used to collect this data tracks pretty much everything about a match, from second-by-second map location to what gun you're currently using. It can also be used to track Overwatch games, and if you're interested in helping reddit user ZYy9oQ on his quest to gather game data, you can sign up here.