The impeccable form of FIFA 22 and the successful launch of F1 22 contributed to these results exceeding expectations but also better than those of last year, with a turnover of 1.7 billion euros (up 14 %) and an operating profit of 433 million euros (up 52%). A small comparison? Activision Blizzard made 1.6 billion euros and 330 million euros over the same period, and it’s not so common to see Andrew Wilson’s company exceed that which still belongs to Bobby Kotick for a while. “We will soon be the largest independent developer and publisher in the world“, has also commented the CEO of Electronic Arts during his presentation, referring to the acquisition of his rival by Microsoft.
Using net bookings (another form of revenue) as a metric, FIFA 22 is now the highest-grossing episode to date, Electronic Arts announces. FIFA Ultimate Team player engagement is up almost 40% annually. On average, the mode saw more daily and weekly players than last year. FIFA Online and FIFA Mobile are also following the trend, with the latter having had its best quarter with a record number of daily active players, up 10% compared to the previous quarter.
If its sales will mainly count for the July-September quarter, we already know that the launch of F1 22 is up by at least 10% compared to the previous opus. This start exceeds the expectations of Electronic Arts, which therefore continues to make its acquisition of Codemasters bear fruit. The opportunity to emphasize that the management of Electronic Arts judges single-player games “Very important” for the balance of its catalog and to keep the favors of a certain part of the public. This does not prevent the income live services to represent 70% of turnover over the last 12 months.
Regarding the rest of the fiscal year, the release of the next Need for Speed is confirmed for the last quarter of 2022. The program for the first quarter of 2023 remains the most interesting, however. Along with the Dead Space remake and the return of the PGA Tour, EA will release its first Super Mega Baseball since its acquisition of studio Metalhead Software. And unless postponed, the start of next year will also see the launch of two other EA titles: a game from a major license (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?) and a partner game that will no doubt be announced in the range. EA Originals. In any case, Electronic Arts is betting on a record annual turnover of at least 7.4 billion euros as of March 31, 2023.