Summary
In EA’s first release of a soccer title since losing the FIFA license,EA Sports FC 24is seeing a 30% drop in physical sales compared toFIFA 23. Last year’sFIFAentry marked the end of the deal between the game publisher and the international soccer association which allowed EA to release games featuring the FIFA title. This final game was a major hit, prompting predictions thatFIFA 23could become the most successful title in franchise historyNow EA is faced with moving on without the classic branding.
FIFA 23may not rank among thebestFIFAgames ever, but it still set a very high bar for its successor in terms of fan support and sales. Now thatEA Sports FC 24is out and data is coming in, it appears that EA’s first entry in the newly branded series is struggling to match pastFIFAnumbers. While the title is doing well overall, it’s falling significantly short ofFIFA 23in terms of sales of physical discs.
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As reported on Twitter by Christopher Dring of GamesIndustry.biz, the sale of physical discs ofEA Sports FC 24is down 30% compared toFIFA 23. In the same post, Dring acknowledges that EA had been anticipating a drop in sales due to the name change, but a loss this large might still be a cause for concern for the publisher.
While the dropping of the FIFA brand could be a factor, there may be other issues at play here.EA Sports FC 24has been getting review bombedby disgruntled fans which has dramatically dropped the game’s score on various platforms. Like many titles in EA’s sports franchises, there have also been complaints that this new title simply doesn’t do enough to improve the gameplay and differentiate itself from past iterations.
In another post, Dring pointed out that the Switch version ofFC 24is selling better thanFIFA 23. He suggested that this is because recentFIFAgames for the Switch were not truly new titles but updated rosters and skins. AsFC 24is actually a new title for the Switch, Nintendo fans are making it a point to pick it up. This supports the idea that poor sales on other platforms are due to a lack of changes to the series and not to the loss of theFIFAname.
With anewFIFAgame happening without EAin the future, the publisher will surely want to establish itsFCseries as a success and the true successor toFIFA. However, this drop in sales does not seem to be the best start.
MORE:What EA Sports Needs To Do To Compete Against FIFA
EA Sports FC 24is available now on PC, PS5, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
