EA Sports Scores More Than $1 Billion from Free-to-Play Titles, Led by Madden

Free-to-play mobile titles from the EA Sports brand have grossed in excess of $1 billion to date, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals. This sum comes from EA's self-published installments in the Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live, and EA Sports UFC franchises across the App Store and Google Play worldwide, and does not include revenue from EA Sports titles licensed to other mobile publishers outside the United States, such as Tencent's FIFA Soccer World in China.

Approximately 49 percent of this revenue has come from in-app purchases in the Madden NFL franchise, totaling more than $490 million in estimated player spending. The publisher's free-to-play FIFA titles, which include FIFA Soccer and FIFA 15 Soccer Ultimate Team, account for approximately 36 percent of the sum, or more than $360 million. Despite arriving relatively late to the game in 2016, NBA Live Mobile Basketball has contributed nearly $140 million or about 14 percent of all gross spending. EA Sports UFC represents by far the smallest portion of EA Sports mobile revenue at just 2 percent of the total.

Owing to the popularity of football and basketball in the region, mobile gamers in the U.S. have accounted for the majority of the $1 billion total at approximately 62 percent, or more than $620 million. The next-largest markets for EA Sports mobile revenue by spending have been Great Britain and Japan at 5.7 and 5.4 percent of the total, respectively, with spending in those countries focused primarily on entries in the FIFA franchise.

Last year, EA Sports saw its flagship mobile title, Madden NFL Overdrive Football, gross a total of nearly $100 million globally. The world's top grossing mobile sports game for 2018 was Konami's Pro Baseball Spirits A with more than $150 million spent entirely by players in Japan.