EA Sports reports record figures: Last year, the video game manufacturer exceeded all expectations. FIFA was and still is the driving force for the North Americans, especially FIFA Ultimate Team which was their main cash cow.
Good times for EA Sports. The annual financial report shows that FIFA 23 has already surpassed the revenues of its predecessor FIFA 22 after six months and is thus the most successful game of the franchise.
The publicly available figures also reveal that EA Sports is raking in a crazy amount of money from live service offerings, in-game sales such as FIFA Points in Ultimate Team.
FIFA 23 With Record Sales Figures: Most Successful FIFA Of All Time
Of all things, the last game of the FIFA series is the most successful: FIFA 23 already exceeded the revenues of FIFA 22 six months after release. In the fourth quarter alone, an increase of 31% was achieved compared to the previous year. The exact figures for the different games are not available, but we can strongly assume that FIFA 23 is the most successful game of the Americans.
After Battlefield 2042 was a mega-flop, these figures certainly come in handy for EA. Besides FIFA, Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and The Sims 4 are currently successful games.
7.4 Billion US Dollars: EA Sports Reveals Earnings
EA Sports earned 7.4 billion US dollars last year, the equivalent of 6.75 billion euros. Thus, the company exceeded its expectations. In the report, CFO Cris Suh praises the FIFA team in particular:
Record live services performance and increased engagement, particularly from our EA SPORTS FIFA franchise, drove better-than-expected Q4 net bookings, capping a strong finish to the fiscal year. Looking ahead, our teams remain disciplined in prioritizing the player experience as we continue to focus our investments on long-term growth."
To what extent EA Sports can sustain these numbers with the new FIFA, EA Sports FC, remains to be seen. The new name and the new chapter have yet to develop. In addition, it is not yet entirely clear whether EAFC will become free-to-play or even be based on a subscription model.
The decisive factor for this were statements by the EA Vice President of Brand Marketing, David Jackson. We have linked the article above.
New Record Numbers Thanks To FIFA Points
But the interesting part of the EA figures is yet to come. Only about 25% of EA Sports' revenue comes from selling games. The other 75% come from live services, i.e. in-game sales such as FIFA Points in Ultimate Team, skins in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor or the shop in Apex Legends.
EA has earned an unbelievable sum with these offers, around 5.5 billion US dollars went straight into the Canadian's pockets. Of course, expenses and taxes still have to be deducted from these sums, but in the end there is a good profit, in which you and we are not entirely innocent.
It also makes sense to build EA Sports FC in a subscription model. If "only" 25% of the revenue comes from game sales anyway, you could focus even more on in-game sales in the future. In FIFA 23, for example, there are unprecedented 500k packs that guarantee multiple TOTS players and high rated cards. This pack costs a whopping 30 euros. But that doesn't stop people from investing "just 30 euros". So we're not surprised that EA makes significantly more money with live services than with game sales.
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At this point in the FIFA season, many FUT players have certainly already invested more than 100 euros in packs - and are thus well above the price they paid for FIFA 23. Add to that all the content creators and streamers, some of whom are putting more than 10,000 euros into FIFA Points.
It is a sophisticated system of the North Americans that is not easy to control. Again and again, the franchise is confronted with gambling allegations, like the proposed bill of the Australian government. It is about an age limit for FIFA, or rather EA Sports FC. This age restriction is intended to protect the young population from digital gambling and its highly addictive potential. A more dramatic measure was taken by the government of Belgium some time ago, where FIFA Points and FUT packs have been banned since 2018.
Should this trend develop further, and more countries draw the same consequences against EA, then the numbers and revenues would drop dramatically. As of now, however, EA Sports is celebrating absolute record figures in their books.