If you are a fan of sports video games, whether you are a fan of NFL or not, then you know what Madden NFL is. Complete with licensing and image rights from the league itself, Madden NFL is the best simulator for real life American Football. You can play as some of the greatest NFL teams and players of past and present in a multitude of different game modes. It has long been the biggest ride in town in terms of American Football video games and has debuted as the top selling game in the US for an incredible 23 consecutive years. You can play as Brady for the Bucs, Mahomes for the Chiefs or Allen for the Bills, the Bills are the pick of many due to them being viewed as the best team in the competition, as the NFL odds suggest.
It has long been the lynchpin of American football video games with the first edition being released in 1988, then known as John Madden Football, named after the titular legendary former Raiders coach. The game was originally released on the Apple II and later ported to MS-DOS and the Commodore 64. The next release came in 1990 and from then on it became the yearly NFL simulator video game release.
Inspired by Strat-O-Matic Sports simulator games, developer Trip Hawkins had long wanted to make a football game. Joe Montana and Joe Kapp were initially approached in 1982 to endorse it, but both refused. Hawkins eventually approached John Madden two years later and the company hatched out an agreement. Madden was interested in the prospect of the resulting project being used as a teaching tool.
It was in 1993 that the game received full licensing due to its popularity and officially became ‘Madden NFL…’ with titles being released corresponding to each NFL season for multiple gaming consoles. This licensing made the game even more popular with the name value of the league alone adding to it.
This was mainly down to EA, the video game company owning the rights to Madden, having a huge pull in the video game industry by this point. With simulated video games for soccer, golf, NHL, cricket and more, EA Sports have long been established as the biggest sports video game developers in the world and their role in the popularity of the game cannot be understated.
Over the next decade, technological advances saw tons of additions to each corresponding release and by the turn of the millennium the development of the Playstation 2 saw the best graphics yet for the game for added realism.
By this time, gaming had become one of the most popular hobbies and pastimes in the world. The Playstation 2 sold slightly more than 500,000 units on its first day, in October 2000. This marked an industry record for the fastest-selling game console. Sony planned to ship 100,000 units per week for the remainder of the year, for a total of 1.3 million by the end of the year.
Whilst those numbers may look low for today’s standards, this was a gigantic boom for the gaming industry and in turn for Madden NFL.
Throughout the noughties, the game continued to develop new, innovative game-modes keeping the game fresh and improved. This heightened the realism of the game and expanded the experience for players. One of the biggest additions to Madden was the Franchise mode, added in 1999. This allowed players to play as teams across several seasons, drafting players, heading to playoffs and super bowls. This was further expanded upon in the noughties to the point where players could create their own playbooks, stadiums and even entirely new franchises of their own.
By 2007, Madden broke sales records after selling more than 3.9 million copies to further establish their dominance in NFL gaming. It was not long after this that Online gaming via consoles became big business.
Online gaming led to EA and Madden coming up with new ways to innovate the game. Throughout the 2010s you could play against your friends in different towns, states and even countries with your favorite NFL teams, but EA knew they needed more. This led to them introducing the ‘Ultimate Team’ concept to players in 2011.
Ultimate team is essentially a franchise mode but online. In this mode, users are able to build a team from the ground up by purchasing players with coins earned in game to challenge millions of players across the world.
It is now the most popular game mode on Madden, boosted by the thousands of hours’ worth of content from YouTubers and streamers who play the game to their huge audiences.
Madden has long been established as the NFL video game, and there is no sign of that changing any time soon. Any competitor is doomed to fail due to the sheer size of the series and EA’s dedication to constantly improving the game are reflected in their sales. There is no doubt that Madden is here to stay.