Looking through player numbers, ratings, and charts three months after release reveals that EA Sports FC 24 is doing just fine without FIFA branding.
After decades of collaboration EA decided to move away from the FIFA brand and license, and launch its popular football simulator on its own.
Despite its cumbersome name, EA Sports FC 24 launched to encouraging reviews in late September with new motion capture technology and additional features to Ultimate Team.
It’s now been three months since release and EA Sports FC 24 has sold better than its predecessor despite opinion being mixed.
EA Sports FC 24 had a great start to life, as it attracted more players in the first week of its release than FIFA 23 did.
A whopping 11.3 million people played FC 24 in the first week, which is a million more than FIFA 23 in the same time frame.
That number grew to 14.5 million players in the game’s first four weeks after release.
Like every year, anticipation was high when the game launched September 29, and 2.2 million fans downloaded the mobile version of the game on the first day – which later climbed to 11.2 million downloads in the first 10 days.
Also promising for EA is that FC 24 was the second best-selling game in all of November in the UK, including physical and digital sales, only behind Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, according to GfK, via GamesIndustry.biz.
FC 24 was also the Christmas number one, as it sold more physical copies than any other game leading up to Christmas in the UK.
It’s safe to say that FC 24 has sold well compared to other games, but player numbers indicate that fewer people are playing the game.
As many as 81,526 people played EA Sports FC 24 on PC on the first Sunday after its release, while 67,218 played it on the most recent Sunday, December 24, according to Steamcharts.
Though that’s a drop of 14,000 players in three months, it’s natural for games to lose players after a few months. It also doesn’t include console numbers, where most people will get their fix.
For console numbers, we can look to video game datahub Newzoo, which compared the launch of FIFA 23 and EA Sports FC 24.
FC 24 ranked 5th in Monthly Active Users on consoles in the first month after its release, while FIFA 23 ranked 7th.
In other words, FC 24 is a better selling game than FIFA 23. However, FC 24 is more or less just as good as the previous games if we judge solely by critic and fan scores.
According to Metacritic, EA Sports FC 24 received a score of 75 out of 100 by critics and 2.3 out of 10 by fans in the User Ratings.
FIFA 23 had similar scores of 76 and 3.1, FIFA 22 received 78 and 3.1, while FIFA 21 scored 72 and 1.
Fans’ reaction to the game is harsh, with many giving the game a score of 0 in the User Ratings on Metacritic, with one reviewer who gave the game a score of two, saying:
‘New cutscenes pre, mid, and post-game are well done and realistic. Players are generally less agile while changing sprint and dribbling directions, which adds to the realism. No super human animations. Cons: The AI is horrible. It’s a real struggle against high difficulty levels or against real players.’
Another reviewer, who gave the game seven out of 10, said:
‘The playability is basically the same as 10 years ago. The players respond faster and faces look more natural, but it’s still the same game and it doesn’t have as many leagues as before. Plus there’s no manager mode for the women teams.’
With all that said, EA still has a healthy amount of people playing FC 24, and the game has sold very well since its release and going into Christmas. Opinions are mixed but not much worse than previous years, all while the game sells better than before.