In May of last year, EA announced that it would no longer be partnering with FIFA for its annual football titles, with the long-running FIFA series now being rebranded to EA Sports FC. While there were concerns that the disassociation from the FIFA name would lead to lower sales, this does not seem to be the case – with EA Sport FC 24 surpassing last year’s title by 25% so far.
As reported by the Financial Times, the rebranded EA Sports FC series appears to have had a strong start, with the 2024 edition already surpassing last year’s entry by 25% when it comes to early access sales (6.8 million copies).
It is worth noting that this year’s early access period is much longer than previous entries, with EA Sports FC 24 offering a week’s worth of early access in comparison to last year’s FIFA 23 (which only offered 3 days of early access).
EA was reportedly paying around $150 million annually for the FIFA license, and so to see the rebrand not only save them over $100 million but also positively affect sales is surprising indeed. It will be interesting to see whether this is a one time thing, or if EA truly no longer needs the FIFA name in order to succeed and grow.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the rebrand? Does the FIFA name matter? Will more sports games follow suit in dropping their license agreements? Let us know down below.