EA Sports FC 24 topped European game sales last month, but there's a catch
The new signing’s launch performance hasn’t quite lived up to those of the established squad.
While EAFC 24 is riding pretty high, having topped the European sales charts during September, its launch performance in the region is lagging a bit behind that of predecessor FIFA 23.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, which has published the month’s GSD data, the overall numbers for physical game sales during the month were slightly down in 2023 compared to 2022. EA Sports FC 24 is cited as the “main reason” for the decline of just over 1% in the numbers.
That said, the report does note that while the latest entry in the football franchise has performed at a decent clip following its release, certainly well enough for EA to be able to pick out some nice numbers for its press releases, it still lags behind FIFA 23’s stellar launch by about 10%.
When compared to FIFA 22 instead, which is a bit less of a positive anomaly, FC 24’s sales are only down by about 3.7%, which would look to measure up a lot better to the anticipated effect of the series ditching its traditional FIFA licensed branding.
That said, the game has still managed to to reach the top ranking in of the all major European markets, selling best in the UK, where (and I don’t know if you’ve heard) we’re generally partial to a bit of a kickaround.
Lagging just behind FC 24 in the sales charts were Starfield and NBA 2K24, with Bethesda’s RPG having been the month’s second biggest game, but also having failed to nick the title of Xbox’s biggest launch this generation from Forza Horizon 5.
2K24, the latest entry in 2K’s basketball series interestingly made it two big name sports titles failing to beat their predecessors’ September numbers, having been down 17% across its opening three weeks when put up against the measuring stick of NBA 2K23.
Over in the US, as we reported yesterday, Starfield topped the September sales, with EA Sports FC 24 slotting into third place behind it and Mortal Kombat 1.
If you’ve been playing a lot of EA Sports FC 24 lately, you might have been affected by an issue that temporarily prevented players on Xbox from kicking off online matches, which EA has since said is now resolved.