Madden NFL 20
Madden NFL 20 Has Biggest Ever Digital Launch in its First Week
It seems like the news is pretty good for Madden on the sales front:
Fans couldn’t wait to get their hands on the game, as Madden NFL 20 had the highest final week of pre-orders in franchise history. Also, well over half of week one sell-through units were digital, a first ever milestone for the franchise. Additionally, the head-to-head action in the game has been intense — the number of games played in-game in the first week is up by double-digit percentages over last year.
The superstars of the Madden NFL community have also been shining during launch, creating nearly 2,000 videos which have been viewed over 63 million times. This year’s features are striking a chord with Madden NFL players, with the highest positive sentiment ever measured on social channels for the franchise.”
The big digital start for Madden certainly is a good thing. Of course, its likely the sales overall aren’t breaking records or EA would tout that — but the continued shift of gamers to digital products and sales still continuing to be good all add up to a pretty good start for EA on their new season of Madden. It’s also telling that gamers have played the 2x as many games as last year, which tends to be a bit of an endorsement on the game’s quality this year from the audience at large.
So far community reaction to Madden has been about what you’d expect for this title yearly. The expectations for an NFL game are always high, no matter who would make it.
You can check out our Madden review here.

I've always wondered if all of the giveaway digital copies are excluded from the sales though. Ever since Twitter and streaming got Popular, Seems like each year more and more people get codes.
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Operation Sports mobile app
I wasn't one of those fans to get the game in my hands and I know friends who skipped this Madden version as well. I'm sticking with Madden 19 (free on EA Access). The changes/additions made to the game are not enough for me to fork over $79.99 CDN. I'm sorry.
dtlm6is right about the franchise mode. It needs an overhaul. It's getting stale. NFL2K5 has the better franchise mode (and gameplay btw.) and that game came out 15 years ago!! LOL. Come on EA!
EA thanks for killing 2K when you signed that exclusivity. You robbed us of a great football game. I think I'll boycott your sports games going forward. Your NHL series has the same problem as well. I'd like to see what they say about the NHL20 once it releases. I bet we get another article saying how NHL20 has the biggest ever digital launch in its first week. lol...
Id be intrested to see if things remain the same 2 months from now lol
Here is a positive article posted about Madden and people find ways to bash. lolz.
Edaddy is correct, this happens on both ends of the spectrum.
Blame 2K for being cheap? Maybe.
Blame the NFL for being greedy? Maybe
Blame EA for getting business done? Nope
The merits of the game are subjective, would the Madden be better if 2K existed? No, because if 2K existed, Madden wouldnt and its all hear say from there on in.
Huh?
After playing Madden 20 a few days now I am 100% convinced this entire year was designed to generate MUT $$ and thats it...the non-MUT modes are a joke...not even half-baked, Scenario engine and FoF are terrible
- Superstar Xfactors -Cant win online without them and they cost more in MUT
- Probowl - A more interesting way to Play online in MUT, just another MUT team. and NOT the largest request from the community like they said
- No Huddle animations - Cut down on presentation... increase the # games played in MUT so they can mislead*this stats too. Madden 20 most games played this year!
The game is so fast and quick play now, that its barely a football game anymore. There is no EVENT in playing a game in CFM.. its 10 minutes of speed football
Glad to see EA is getting rewarded for making the best Madden game ever! I am #addicted this year!!!
"Biggest digital launch" would track with the rest of the industry and the rest of EA products. EA surpassed 50% for digital > physical sales for the first time in H1 2019, Sony announced that they reached near parity (it's like ~45% digital sales) on PSN. Microsoft has not released their figures, but I'd imagine they track slightly ahead in terms of digital : physical than Sony.
That's what this is about.
re: complimentary copies, yes, those usually count towards sales. Comps are writeoffs for the company and the company will self report those as digital sales. But even with the huge number of free comps this year (literally like every sports podcast I listen to seemingly had Madden codes to give away this year), that shouldn't make a considerable dent into getting over the 50% hump for digital v. physical.
EA Access launching on PSN this year would probably make a significant difference contributing to this, but also there's just higher digital uptake in the industry now than ever before for obvious reasons.
Just two years ago I said I’d never go digital, but here I am. It’s more convenient and I stopped worrying about trading them in for $10 at GameStop lol.
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
Fantastic news, this will show EA that they were right to hold the line and make the game better in regards to pass rush and other more realistic aspects this year. It's also apparent that more of us liked the new feature of getting to the line super fast to get more playing and less watching as well.
Glad to see EA is getting rewarded for making the best Madden game ever! I am #addicted this year!!!
You forgot the “s/“
This isn’t helpful or productive.
If you want to participate in the conversation in an adult manner, feel free to do so.
Otherwise, don’t post.
The original press release from EA states:
The number of games played in-game in the first week is up by double-digit percentages over last year.
This is restated in the article as:
Gamers have played the 2x as many games as last year
"2x as many games as last year" would be a triple-digit increase, e.g. 100% increase over last year. The Press release states "double-digit percentage" increase not "double" or "2x." In the parlance of press releases, "double digits" usually translates somewhere to ~10-20% increases, although it's likely intentionally vague in the press release (it's worth noting that earlier in the press release they explicitly cite 70% and 80% increases in players trying out the face of the franchise mode, so it's arguable that switching to "double digit" instead of a hard percentage numbers later in the article is a good deal less than 70 or 80%). In any event, it's not 2x or 100% more head to head games.
Here's the spot with the error:
I don't think it should be a terms of service violation to correct misstatements that are in the original topic. I reread the terms of service, given that I first agreed to these ~16+ years ago... and I don't think there's anything in that deleted post or this one that would qualify as violating the terms of service?
Your post was deleted because you directly back-talked a forum moderator in an argumentative manner regarding how the thread was being moderated, which is an obvious and direct violation of the Terms of Service:
I exercised some judgment and leniency in this case and opted to not execute a ban in this case because you were attempting to make some cogent points in other parts of your post, which you have since restated without directly addressing a moderator attempting to keep the thread discussion on the level.
If you have any further questions about forum moderation, please reach out to me via PM. There will be no further public discussion on this specific topic.
Im just too old and lazy to get up and change a damn disk everytime i rage quit whatever game i am currently playing. lol Also i was tired of being offered $1.50 for the previous years Madden or NBA2k so i said why not.
Save some gas too not driving to gamestop to turn it in.
Electronic Arts is a publicly traded company. News they release about how their products perform at market can be considered investor guidance. If they openly lie about how a product is performing and that lie deceives prospective investors into buying more stock which will then fall when the company doesn't hit earnings targets, they open themselves up to all sorts of investment fraud lawsuits.
So no, they aren't lying about how the game is performing.
Sent from my SM-S727VL using Operation Sports mobile app
Sent from my iPad using Operation Sports
To have your first reaction to this news be, "they're probably lying" is nonsensical to point of being some kind of new example of Absurdist fiction.
It's probably for the same reasons that every negative review thread quickly devolves into pissing and moaning about either the reviewer, the review itself or both. Personally, I've been really enjoying Madden 20 and the thought of spending time trying to disprove and discredit anything that doesn't match my opinions completely blows my mind. But :nocomprende:
More people need to be like Bill:
If so, Madden 20 mostly is the best Madden, but there are four or five flaws that are so infuriating that they more or less kill most of the game’s quality. EA Tib could, however, fix some of these issues in a patch. But, this year more than any before has seen the lurch toward catering to the MUT/esports crowd, so I have my doubts. In particular, I don’t expect things like the coverage will be fixed unless pass rush is nerfed, and I certainly don’t expect things like the face editor to be expanded to Franchise, or other Franchise improvements (like fixing permanently hidden development traits).
This is the first time I’ve ever tried MUT, and I must say, playing this game competitively against another human, not having to deal with the fact that franchise mode is probably the worst I’ve ever seen it, dare I say I’m having ... fun with MUT
Never thought I’d see this day from me, but I wanted something for my football fix, and MUT is absolutely the way to go for me this year.
They’ve had years and years and years to prove they care about franchise mode, and I’ve come to accept that fact that they just don’t. Instead of beating a dead horse about it, bashing EA I could in every thread, I decided to get my money’s worth any way I could.
I was never a MUT supporter, hell, I’m still under the impression that MUT is the absolute reason franchise mode is still the worst or 2nd worst franchise mode in any sports game. (Looking at you MLB the show)
Madden is what it is. It’s an arcade game with sim elements. The zone coverage issues are absolutely unacceptable, and I honest to god don’t see how anyone can logically defend that. If you have this game, find your niche, find what you consider fun and run with it. If not, it’s going to be a long Madden season for a lot of people
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
This is the first time I’ve ever tried MUT, and I must say, playing this game competitively against another human, not having to deal with the fact that franchise mode is probably the worst I’ve ever seen it, dare I say I’m having ... fun with MUT
Never thought I’d see this day from me, but I wanted something for my football fix, and MUT is absolutely the way to go for me this year.
They’ve had years and years and years to prove they care about franchise mode, and I’ve come to accept that fact that they just don’t. Instead of beating a dead horse about it, bashing EA I could in every thread, I decided to get my money’s worth any way I could.
I was never a MUT supporter, hell, I’m still under the impression that MUT is the absolute reason franchise mode is still the worst or 2nd worst franchise mode in any sports game. (Looking at you MLB the show)
Madden is what it is. It’s an arcade game with sim elements. The zone coverage issues are absolutely unacceptable, and I honest to god don’t see how anyone can logically defend that. If you have this game, find your niche, find what you consider fun and run with it. If not, it’s going to be a long Madden season for a lot of people
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
Similar boat. I’ve been playing MUT to kill time and wait for the possibility of patches fixing up some of the gameplay and cfm issues. Also hoping for 5th year options and more scenarios soon. Currently cfm is filled with immersion killers for me.. looking forward to seeing what they do with M21 more than anything.