The market for EA’s soccer games hasn’t changed despite the dropping of the FIFA branding, even as EA Sports FC 24 has reached 11.3 million players worldwide during its first week. During the same period last year, its predecessor, FIFA 23, had reached 10.3 million.
While EA is no stranger to such launch numbers for its annual soccer games, this year’s figures are significant owing to the branding change due to a purported licensing spat with the International Federation of Association Football.
However, the gaming company still holds licenses to players, teams, stadiums, and leagues, in addition to newly acquired licenses for a number of women’s leagues. Big leagues that are part of the game include the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League, and La Liga.
“In addition to welcoming back millions of our longtime players, new players in FC 24 are up nearly 20 percent year over year, showing the excitement of football fans everywhere to join the Club,” said Cam Weber, President of EA Sports.
According to the EA, the mobile version of the game was installed by more than 2.2 million people on the first day. And in the 10 following days, a total of more than 11.2 million new users have downloaded the mobile game.
As usual, this year’s soccer outing from EA was launched on a diverse list of platforms. EA Sports FC 24 arrived on September 29 and can be purchased for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, and the Nintendo Switch.
EA Sports FC 24 comes with several improvements to the gameplay experience. There is the AcceleRATE 2.0 system that divides player movement into seven different archetypes and the PlayStyles feature, which gives players unique capabilities. The much loved Ultimate Team portion is present as well.