What EA Investors Should Know About Early 'Madden NFL 21' Sales Figures

Electronic Arts EA, maker of the popular Madden video game franchise, reported early sales figures and stats from this year’s game.

What Happened: EA reported first week sales of “Madden NFL 21” were up nearly 20% year over year. Customers had played 460,000 seasons already and engagement of the game was up 49% compared to last year’s “Madden NFL 20.”

“After the most successful year in franchise history, fans are now playing more Madden than ever before,” said EA Sports Madden NFL Executive Producer Seann Graddy.

Why It’s Important: The Madden franchise continues to be one of the biggest revenue drivers for EA. In 2019, “Madden NFL 20” was the third best-selling video game, trailing only Activision Blizzard’s ATVI “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019” and Take-Two Interactive Software’s TTWO “NBA 2K20.”

EA reported player acquisition was up 140% for Madden year over year during its first-quarter earnings report. Net bookings increased 17% to $5.98 billion in the first quarter.

The new game, which was released on Aug. 28, comes during a time when there is no pre-season games and worries of NFL games not being played. The engagement numbers are exciting with uncertainty from live sports.

NPD Group reported video game sales were up 30% in the second quarter hitting $11.6 billion. A couple of strong reports on quarterly and monthly sales came at a time when more people were shut down at the time. Strong video game sales have also powered companies like Nintendo NTDOY to new highs. 

What’s Next: Shares of EA are up 30% in 2020. Shares closed Thursday down 5.6% to $131.78.