The name of the game isn’t the biggest change this year for Electronic Arts’ star franchise. The American giant has just revealed (source in English) the first sales figures for its new football game and these are much more positive than expected. Where sales ofEA Sports FC 24 are in decline compared to FIFA 23the figures are much better in terms of content sold in-game. Thus, the new strategy pushing to put many more packs on sale in its store seems to work wonderfully, even if it means destroying the reputation of FUT mode a little more.
Record pack sales for EA FC 24 FUT mode
For those who are not familiar with the mode Ultimate Team Football (FUT) of the EA franchise, the latter allows players to create their dream team through collectible cards. For more than a decade, this game mode has become extremely popular, creating a real craze for a large part of the football community with the release of each new opus. EA’s marketing campaign now revolves almost entirely around FUT mode, featuring celebrities from the world of sports in numerous campaigns around the world.
But this game mode is regularly criticized by many players in the world of video games but also by various national regulators due to its extremely addictive aspect pushing the purchase of in-game content. As a reminder, the packs are now prohibited from sales in Belgium for several years and many nations are studying similar measures. It must be said that the most effective method to obtain the best possible team is to spend real money to purchase Card Packs. However, the random content of these packs is constantly updated, pushing players to buy more and more in order to obtain the new special cards, creating a phenomenon of addiction, especially among the youngest.
This situation gradually evolved over the years before finally leading to the current model of EA FC 24. The new game in the franchise places a huge emphasis on this real money content, creating increasingly large packs but also increasingly expensive. During the Team of the Year period, the major event of the FUT season, Packs worth more than 30 euros are added daily in the game store. Promotional offers are multiplying as it becomes more and more popular. more difficult to acquire the best cards without accessing the contents of the in-game store.
Although sales of EA FC 24 are declining, notably due to the loss of the FIFA license, EA has managed to garner more revenue thanks to this change of model. Thus, despite fewer players than on FIFA 23, the record for sales of in-game content for the first quarter of the latter was broken, with a net growth of 7% compared to last year. If this development seems weak, it should be remembered that in addition to having lost the name FIFA (present every year on the cover of the football game since 1994), EA FC 24 beat FIFA 23 which also benefited from the craze around the 2022 World Cup over this period.
We are therefore in for a real tour de force on the part of Electronic Arts, which sees its net profits linked to the sale of in-game content amount to 1.7 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2023. If the studio does not specify the details of its sales and the performance of its football game are at the heart of this report.
An economic model that increasingly divides
For the moment, the economic results seem to prove EA right. However, it is possible that this model will quickly divide the community. The proof is that players’ reactions are increasingly aggressive on social networks while many denounce a more pay-to-win (pay to win) than ever.
This choice of EA is also explained by the absence of credible alternatives on the football game market, a situation which should change in the years to come. Indeed, several studios are currently working on football simulations while eFootball continues to improve its content. In the meantime, it is likely that early fans will gradually leave the EA Sports FC ship, which also suffers from gameplay and content that are quite criticized by the community.