Apex Legends Cross Progression: What Carries Over in 2026

Cross progression in Apex Legends is automatic and has been since October 2023: your account level, cosmetics, Battle Pass progress and most currencies live on your EA Account and follow you across PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2, as long as each platform account is linked to that same EA Account. As of November 2026 there are still a few important exceptions, including Ranked progress tracked per platform, a separate Apex Coins wallet on Nintendo hardware, and platform exclusive items. Below we cover what carries over, what does not, how it differs from cross-play, what the end of original Switch support changed, and how to fix the linking problems that cause most missing progress.

We checked this against EA Help's cross progression, cross-play, account linking and Ranked articles, the official Apex Legends FAQ, the original cross progression announcement and EA's Nintendo Switch support update in November 2026.

How Cross Progression Works

EA Help is direct about the basics: all Apex Legends players automatically have cross progression, and to use it your platform account has to be linked to your EA Account. You need an EA Account to play at all, and your Apex progress is permanently tied to it. It cannot be moved to a different EA Account later, and you can only have one Apex Legends profile per EA Account, with no sub-accounts.

In practice this means the EA Account, not the console or launcher, is the real owner of your Apex progress. Log in on a new PlayStation, a Steam install or a Switch 2 with the same EA Account and you see the same level, the same Legends and the same skins. Log in with a different EA Account and you start from zero, even on a console you have used for years.

You can see which platform accounts are connected on the Connected Accounts page of your EA Account settings. Connected Nintendo Accounts are the exception, since EA Help notes they do not appear on that page. If you are about to start playing on a new platform, check that page first; our guide to the Apex EA account walks through the linking steps for each platform.

What Carries Over and What Does Not

EA's original cross progression announcement and the official FAQ spell out how each part of your account is handled.

• Cosmetics and Legends: shared on every platform, except platform exclusives. PlayStation Plus pack items stay on PlayStation, Xbox Founder's Edition and Xbox Gold items stay on Xbox, and the P.A.T.H. Legendary Pathfinder skin stays on Nintendo.
• Apex Coins: one shared wallet across PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Coins bought or earned on Nintendo are kept in their own wallet and can only be spent there, although non exclusive content bought with them is usable everywhere.
• Crafting Metals, Legend Tokens and Heirloom Shards: bound to the EA Account with the same balance on every platform.
• Challenges, Battle Pass rewards and XP: bound to the EA Account and shared.
• Achievements and trophies: locked to each platform, though progress based ones unlock once the accounts are linked.
• Ranked: leaderboards are separate per platform, and EA Help's Ranked article adds that your Ranked progress is tracked separately on each platform, so you can be Bronze on one and Gold on another. PS4 and PS5 count as one platform.

The Ranked exception is the one players notice most. A season of climbing on PC does nothing for your console rank, which is worth remembering before you split your time. Our Season 31 Ranked guide covers how placement and entry costs work on whichever platform you choose.

Cross-Play Is Not the Same Thing

Cross progression is about your account; cross-play is about who you can play with. EA Help says Apex supports cross-play on the EA app, Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch 2, and that it is turned on automatically. To squad up with someone on another platform, open the Friends menu, choose Find Friend and search for their EA Public ID; you can also let people find you by email, PSN Online ID, Xbox gamertag or Nintendo nickname through your privacy settings.

Matchmaking has a rule worth knowing. According to the FAQ, console players play together while PC players play with other PC players. If a console player parties up with a PC player, the whole party is placed into PC matches. That protects console lobbies from PC players while still letting mixed groups play together if they choose to.

Once you are friends, the Friends menu shows a platform icon next to each name, and on console a friend on the other console brand appears with a generic gamepad icon. Cross platform parties can talk through in-game voice chat, so nobody needs a third party app just to coordinate a drop.

You can turn cross-play off on PlayStation, Xbox or Switch 2 from the lobby's gear menu under Settings, then Cross Platform Play, but not on PC. If you disable it, you will only match with players on your own platform who have also disabled it, and EA warns that this increases queue times. Turning cross-play off does nothing to cross progression; your account still syncs.

The Nintendo Switch Change in 2026

The biggest platform shift this year concerned Nintendo. EA announced on January 30, 2026 that Season 29 would be the final update for the original Nintendo Switch, and from August 4, 2026, at the start of Season 30, the game stopped being playable on that console. Apex continues on Nintendo Switch 2, and current EA articles list Switch 2 among the cross-play and cross progression platforms.

EA said that everything earned or purchased, including Apex Coins and cosmetics, carries over to Nintendo Switch 2 because it is tied to the EA Account, even if you buy a Switch 2 after August 4, 2026. It also noted that in some regions local laws require digital currency to be used within 180 days of purchase, and players who bought currency in Japan are subject to a 180 day expiry across all platforms.

The announcement also covered the last weeks of the original console. Until August 4, 2026, Switch players could keep playing, earning rewards and spending existing balances, but in-game purchases on that console ended with the shutdown. EA stressed that all of this applied only to the original Switch, not to Switch 2, which continues to receive updates.

If you have an old Switch profile you have not opened in a while, the safest move is to sign in on Switch 2 with the same EA Account and confirm your inventory before buying anything new.

How the 2023 Merge Treated Older Accounts

Many questions about missing items trace back to the original merge in October 2023. When cross progression went live, the game chose a primary profile: the one with the highest account level, or, if levels tied, the platform played most recently. Stats from the other profiles were not merged, which meant some stat tied items could be lost, including Ranked reward badges, holosprays and charms, the number on Battle Pass badges, Collection Event reward track badges and achievement badges.

EA Help lists three other situations where content went missing: having more than one Apex account, which were merged and could lose content from the lower level one; having more than one EA Account, which were not merged at all; and having a platform account that had been banned, whose content was not transferred. EA says it cannot restore content lost in the merge, and the FAQ adds that no refunds were given for duplicate items.

Fixing Linking Problems

Most "my progress disappeared" moments today are linking mistakes rather than bugs. A few checks resolve most of them:

1. Confirm which EA Account you are signed into. If a platform was linked to a second EA Account, you are looking at that account's progress, not your main one.
2. Check Connected Accounts. Make sure every platform you play on appears under the same EA Account.
3. Think before relinking. EA allows you to switch linked accounts up to three times in a rolling year, but warns that if you unlink a platform and link it to a different EA Account, your entitlements stay on the account the platform was first linked to, and you permanently lose access to that progress, purchases and rewards on the new one.
4. Use official channels only. EA says it will never charge a fee for account recovery and never asks for your login details; the only place to get account help is EA Help.

If you own Heirlooms, these checks matter even more, because shards and Mythic items are tied to the EA Account like everything else. Our Heirloom guide explains how they work, and the Battle Pass guide covers how pass progress is shared across platforms.

Services That Follow Your Account

Because cosmetics, levels and Battle Pass progress live on your EA Account, progress you add on one platform is visible wherever you sign in, while Ranked stays tied to the platform where it was earned. The Apex Legends boosting hub lists rank and RP boosts, 4K damage and 20 bomb badges, wins, challenges, and account and Battle Pass leveling for PlayStation, Xbox and PC (Steam and the EA app), along with a separate section of account listings.

Frequently Asked Questions