Electronic Arts’ revival of its college football series is already off to an incredibly impressive start. The publisher announced Friday that EA Sports College Football 25, which officially launched Friday, has had more than 2.8 million players, 2.2 million of whom paid to play the sports sim in early access.
The $99.99 Deluxe Edition of EA Sports College Football 25 offered three days’ worth of early access, which led to a massive install base well before the game officially launched. EA said in a news release that an additional 600,000 players got their hands on College Football 25 through EA Play, which offers an early trial version of certain Electronic Arts titles.
In addition to the deluxe stand-alone version of College Football 25, EA is also selling a $149.99 MVP Bundle that includes the deluxe editions of EA Sports College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25, as well as other in-game perks like virtual currencies. That’s an attractive offer for football fans, who would have spent about $140 anyway if they bought those games separately.
On Tuesday, when the early access period for EA Sports College Football 25 began, in-game statistics showed that more than 700,000 players were online concurrently. On Friday, hours after the game officially launched, concurrent player counts were around 550,000.
According to data from research firm Circana (formerly NPD), EA Sports College Football 25 ranked No. 3 in U.S. daily active users on Xbox (behind Call of Duty HQ and Fortnite), and No. 4 on PlayStation 5 (behind COD, Fortnite, and Grand Theft Auto 5), during its early access period, according to executive director and video game industry adviser Mat Piscatella.
According to Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker, on July 17th, EA Sports College Football ranked #3 in US daily active users on Xbox Series (behind only Call of Duty HQ and Fortnite) and 4th on PS5 (COD, Fortnite & GTAV).
…and it’s still just in early access.
Phew.
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 18, 2024
Anticipation for EA Sports College Football 25 has been high, naturally, since Electronic Arts hasn’t released a college football game since 2013, when it launched NCAA Football 14.
Fortunately for fans of college football video games, EA’s return to the space has been not just commercially successful, but critically as well. Polygon’s review, from critic Matt Brown, says EA Sports College Football 25 was “worth the wait.”
“[EA Sports College Football 25] is also very clearly a labor of love from developers who deeply care about college football and college football culture,” Brown wrote. “It’s a testament to what is possible with sports games when teams have longer than a few months to crank out AAA titles. And if this is the foundation for future college football games, then the series is in a very, very good place.”
EA Sports College Football 25 is available now on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.