FIFA is adored by millions across the globe. Yes, it has had its fair share of critics in recent years, but there can be no denying what the franchise has done for the gaming industry. They were lightyears ahead of the curve when they hosted the inaugural FIFA Interactive World Cup in 2004, laying the groundwork for eSports and competitive gaming as we know it to come to the fore. Then came the launch of FIFA Ultimate Team in 2009, pioneering the concept of in-game purchases, which hundreds of games have followed since. There’s no other way to put it than to say that EA paved the way for the gaming boom.
Many modern gamers weren’t even born when the first-ever FIFA Interactive World Cup – now known as the FIFAe World Cup – took place. It wasn’t until the 2010 FIFA World Cup video game (the official game of the real-life World Cup in South Africa), that things really started to take off though, with almost two million players taking part. Serbia’s Nenad Stojkovic staved off the competition that year, lifting the crown in Barcelona and bagging a cool $25,000 in the process. Three years later, the FIFA Interactive World Cup entered the Guinness Book of World Records, when a record 2.5 million players participated in the competition. That’s a record that still stands today.
Of course, eSports have come on leaps and bounds in the decade since. With the explosion of YouTube and Twitch into the mainstream, popularity levels have reached all-time highs. These days there’s merchandise, dedicated online slots, even an eSports theme park. And once again, FIFA was at the forefront, birthing some of the most famous streaming superstars in the world today, such as KSI and Tekkz. This upsurge in popularity can easily be summed up by the prize money on offer for winning the eWorld Cup. Due to global events, the most recent competition took place in 2019, when Mohammed ‘MoAuba’ Harkous took home a prize of $250,000, ten times the amount that Stojkovic bagged barely six years prior.
The in-game purchases utilized in FIFA Ultimate Team – launched in 2009 – were the ultimate game-changer on the revenue side of things. When playing FUT, as it’s affectionately known, gamers have the ability to purchase different ‘packs’ potentially containing superstar players such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, significantly upgrading their team in the process. They can purchase these packs either with in-game coins earned through playing the game or FIFA points, which are bought on either the Xbox or PlayStation marketplaces. The net revenue that EA have made solely from extra content sales (FIFA points) has grown from $1.2bn in 2018 to a mammoth $1.6bn in 2021. Following the success of the FIFA series, other gaming behemoths such as Fortnite have followed suit with in-game purchases.
As we alluded to earlier, EA have received their fair share of negativity. Their Metacritic ratings for the last few installments of the blockbuster franchise have fallen off a cliff. You have to go all the way back to FIFA 17 – released over half a decade ago – for their last above-average rated game. And even that was a rating of 5/10, barely squeezing into positive territory. Still though, the game remains one of the most popular on the market, in terms of players, viewers, and revenue. In Europe, where football (soccer) is the most popular sport by far, FIFA 22 was named Best-Selling Game in 17 countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany. This speaks volumes about the fact that, despite gamers being a little more disappointed than they were in years gone by, they still flock in their droves to play the number one sports game ever created. Even after being a market leader of the eSports space for almost two decades, FIFA are still doing something right.
