Actions Per Minute, commonly abbreviated as APM, is a term used in the real time strategy field of cybersport which refers to the total number of actions that a player can perform in a minute.

Actions per minute is the number of actions (such as selecting units or issuing an order) completed within a minute of gameplay in real time strategy games, most notably in Starcraft

StarCraft

StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...

. High APM is often associated with skill, as it can indicate that a player both knows what to do in the game and has the manual dexterity to carry it out. Software has been developed to analyze players' APM in these games. Beginners often have low APM counts, typically below 50. Professional e-athletes in South Korea usually have average APM scores around 300, but often exceed the 400 mark during intense battle sequences. Notable gamers with over 400 average APM include Lee Young-Ho

Lee Young-Ho

Lee Young-Ho is a South Korean professional StarCraft player who plays under the alias By.FlaSh or simply Flash. Lee currently plays for KT....

 and Lee Jae-Dong. Park Sung-Joon

Park Sung-Joon

Park Sung-Joon is a professional player of the real-time strategy game StarCraft. He is known by his pseudonym July, a shortened version of JulyZerg...

 is noted for the record APM of 818.

Origin

The term APM originates from Starcraft

StarCraft

StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...

 which was popularised after the development of a large number of community tools allowing observers of game matches to view player resources and actions per minute which was used as a metric

Metric

Metric may refer to:* the metric system of measurement** International System of Units, or Système International , the modern form of the metric system** Metric ton, a measurement of mass equal to 1,000 kg...

 in determining a player's skill. After the release of Starcraft 2, many of these metrics were built into the game's interface, including APM which further popularised the term's usage and served to increase the competiveness of the game.

Speed and Efficiency in APM

A player's APM value is determined by the number of actions performed in a given minute. Some actions, such as repeated selection, are easier to carry out than others, and players may repeatedly perform (or "spam") these actions and are consequently redundant in terms of their usefulness. Although, "spamming" may be used as a way to warm up and maintain speed for later phases of the game, or it may be used simply to increase a player's recorded APM in order to improve the perception of their gameplay skills. Because of this, more sophisticated measures of APM may attempt to filter out redundant actions by means such as ignoring re-selection of a group of units which was already selected and ignoring the very beginning of the game (when the typical relative lack of action facilitates spamming), in order to only measure a player's "efficient/effective" APM value. However, there is currently no standardization of what constitutes an "effective action" and APM is therefore typically recorded without any filtering.

Accuracy in APM

Accuracy is another factor determining a player's APM. Accuracy is the coordination of precise mouse clicks and keystrokes. Greater accuracy will result in fewer mis-clicks and mis-strokes; thus the player's efficiency increases resulting in a more accurate valid APM. Players who have greater accuracy can perform other vital tasks during gameplay and can multitask without losing efficiency.