Apex Legends is one of the major drivers of EA’s current success, with the game making a load of money, and up to 10 million people playing the battle royale on a weekly basis. Also, veteran title The Sims 4 is still raking in cash despite being released five years ago.
All this was revealed with EA’s latest financial report, which shows the firm is doing well, with revenue hitting $1.21 billion (around £1 billion, AU$1.75 billion) and surpassing expectations.
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CFO Blake Jorgensen believes Apex Legends will be a big money-spinner for the next 10 years, no less, and it’s now one of EA’s most reliable cash generators along with FIFA and The Sims.
Despite its age, The Sims 4 expansion packs and content downloads were up no less than 55% year-on-year – buoyed by a recent free giveaway (back in May) which led to 7 million fresh downloads for the game.
So it seems that those folks who were happy to get the game for free, were also happy to fork out for some DLC once they were hooked. The active modding community and wealth of The Sims 4 cheats have also helped its longevity. This coming year will see more content than ever delivered for The Sims 4, EA reckons.
Seasons to be cheerful
Back to Apex Legends, and EA claims that Season 2 of the battle royale has outdone its expectations.
In a conference call, CEO Andrew Wilson noted of Apex Legends: “We have 8 million to 10 million people on a weekly basis playing the game.” And it’s apparently also the fastest-growing game EA has ever witnessed.
How does 10 million weekly players compare to Fortnite? We don’t have figures to draw any conclusions on this front, sadly (or with PUBG).
Of course, it doesn’t sound quite as strong as when Apex Legends launched and hit 25 million players in its first week, but obviously that sort of momentum was never going to be kept up.
The good news for those who enjoy EA’s shooter is that it’s proving itself to be more than sustainable, despite recent suggestions that takings from the game were falling (although that was back in May, before Season 2 launched).
EA pointed to the future of Apex Legends ushering in all manner of goodies including a full esports league, mobile game, and Season 3 being bigger than ever (naturally).
Meanwhile, on the esports front, the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational has been announced and will be held in Poland come September, featuring 80 teams competing from across the globe, for a prize fund of $500,000 (around £410,000, AU$725,000).
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