UK physical sales for EA FC are down 30% compared to FIFA 23

EA Sports FC has earned the second-biggest physical launch of 2023 in the UK.

According to Head of GamesIndustry.biz’ Chris Dring, the first entry in the newly rebranded football series managed to beat Hogwarts Legacy in physical sales, but fell short of dethroning The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

However, physical sales for EA FC are down 30% over FIFA 23, the last entry in the series before the branding split with football’s governing body.

Dring notes that EA had expected some short-term impact as a result of its rebrand away from FIFA, whose name it has used in video games for over 25 years.

Notably, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is up physically vs FIFA 23. This is likely due to EA ditching the “legacy edition” from the Nintendo Switch version, which saw the last few years of FIFA releases on Switch relegated to a simple update of kits and players, rather than a new game. EA Sports FC on Switch finally makes the jump to the  Frostbite engine, and is feature-complete with other formats.

The most notable change in this year’s game is the inclusion of women in its Ultimate Team mode, allowing for mixed-gender teams.

The top women’s leagues from England, France, Germany, Spain and the US have been added to the mode. Male and female players can play in the same team, and if they’re part of the same affiliated team (such as Chelsea FC and Chelsea Women) they receive a further chemistry link.

In our review of the current-gen versions of EA FC 24, we said “EA Sports FC 24 isn’t the huge departure that we’d hoped for. While Ultimate Team devotees will likely be happy, the rest of the game feels like an afterthought in the transition away from the FIFA license.