Madden NFL 21 Sales Improve 20 Percent Year-Over-Year in its First Week, More Than 17 Million Games Played in The Yard

https://www.reddit.com/r/Madden/comments/ilvd0x/well_this_is_disappointing
The people have spoken with their wallets.
The full press release: https://ir.ea.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/EA-SPORTS-Madden-NFL-21-Sees-Strong-First-Week-Unit-Sales-up-Nearly-20-Percent-Year-Over-Year/default.aspx

Covid.. people not working.. kids not in school.
Not surprised in the least.

Honestly, I'm not surprised because more people at home meaning more potential sales.

Yeah none of this is a surprise to me given the current world situation. People need a escape and even better if it comes in the form of video games and sports. I have my own opinions about people playing/not playing the game but that's not for this thread.
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Well that’s disappointing. Apparently the shield sells no matter what despite negative reviews and all.
This is my first year not buying Madden since 1997.
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All video games should be up 20% year over year then, right? I mean COVID...people not working...kids not in school impacts them all too.
Come on, the excuses need to stop. I have gotten hammered for a week trying to explain, based on conversations from inside EA, that the hashtags and review bombing aren't indicative of what "main street" thinks. Hardcore social media users are a microscopic piece of the entire Madden community. Living in an echo chamber is a serious issue today in general, and the hardcore Madden community is no different.
I love franchise, and the graphic they tweeted earlier showing engagement is up 49% is a good sign. I keep harping that people think it is money that is holding franchise back but it has been horrible engagement numbers actually doing that from what I have heard. If engagement is up this year it will help reaffirm their position in investing in the mode going forward.

Well, congratulations to the executives who are gonna get a bonus check.
Edit: EA is great at PR. They are touting a 20% increase in “sell-through”, meaning retail copies sold as a ratio of what was shipped to retailers.
Last year, EA touted that more than half of first week sales were digital. Digital sales don’t apply to the retail sell-through counts. Between the pandemic and general user trend toward digital, the question is did EA ship as many copies as they normally do, and how does that factor into their formulas.
Either way, sales being up 20% year over year isn’t actually what they are claiming.

Welp... so much for that.
The developers might care about what people say. But the head honcho? The CEO? All he cares about is the bottom line. The NFL doesn't care because they cashed their check.
Oh well. Can't beat them, join them.

The harsh reality is, Madden "protesters" aren't going to make a hill of beans worth of difference.
This isn't an old trend. We can vote with our wallets until the end of time. For every die hard, born and bred, live and die by this game fan that jumps OFF the wagon, 2 more jump ON it. Sad fact. But due to the enormous popularity of the NFL, its just not going to change.
It will be interesting to see how this year plays out. I've never seen this level of rage before.
But it will be a record sales year, make no mistake. So in the end, will EA or the NFL care one bit about what people say about the prodcut??

This exactly. I literally bought the game because I have nothing else to play right now and there is nothing else to do after work or on weekends. I am in California so restrictions are still pretty tight here. Plus $60 isn’t really a factor for me. No surprises here. I said in a thread a few weeks ago I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the highest selling madden in a decade

The bigger (and much more important) number...player engagement is up 49%.
That means players are playing more - sure the dynamics of 2020 add to it; but they're doing a lot of the right things to keep players interested (for now).
IIRC, there were over 700K online franchises on just PS4 (as of a couple of days ago). That's a lot of folks playing Madden CFM....

This may cut against the current negative grain here...But I'm enjoying Madden 21 more than any other Madden in recent memory for me. The gameplay is just top notch. Sure, there's legacy issues and some bugs. But that's any sports game at launch.
I want franchise to get the same emphasis next year that gameplay got this year. If so, we might finally get what we deserve as a community.
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You might want to check what is meant by "sell-through" before jumping to any conclusions.

EA is on a PR campaign lol they definitely hear the noise. This announcement plus giving away all those free codes is them trying to drown out the noise. This dont mean much of the overall success of madden

Not really encouraging. In EA’s eyes, this was a successful release

Another by-product of COVID is schools are closed. A lot of kids/teens home all day with parents who are probably on the brink of insanity in some cases. No doubt Madden is a great way to preoccupy the kids while the parents get some peace.

The ying and yang of Madden hearkens back to the ole taste great, less filling days.
September at OS.
PS- Glad our kids are in college and out of house. It would be difficult being a parent in this time period, but I know our kids wouldn't be playing video games, but each parent is different. We'd have them outside taking recess or watching the dog channel. lol j/k.
I wouldn't want to be a parent w/K-12 children at home.

We homeschool our son, so what's going on now hasn't affected us much at all. And he only gets 30 min to an hour to play a video game with me every other day. His go to is WWE 2k20.

This feels a little like chicken and egg stuff. How can people be engaged in a mode the remains largely unchanged and shallow year after year. Agree that engagement is good but EA blaming lack of engagement seems like a cop out. It hasn't stopped them from investing in modes that didn't even exist with no guarantee of engagement.

It’s a press release from EA. Numbers lie, this could be creative marketing spin.
Game play is pretty good but needs some tweaks. However, EA deserves every bit of back lash they receive. Ignoring franchise and their original fan base. Blatant lies over the year. Jaded devs making snarky comments on social media.
We need competition to drive up quality and innovation outside of MUT. Look, they already threw in a new mode to compete with 2K.
I would love to see how the contract defines simulation football.
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Didn’t video games in general just have it’s best quarter ever shortly after COVID?

Actually, investing in modes that didn't exist came from focus groups and market testing which have all been proven right. These are appealing to again that MUCH larger non-hardcore group that is most of the Madden user base. The general gaming industry is shifting towards quicker onboarding and faster gameplay that people don't need to be as invested in.

Care to elaborate for the economically illiterate?

Outside of their distance learning and chores, My boys (ages 9 and 11) and I workout together (Non-equipment HIIT), read, football at the park, etc. As a weekend reward we hit the beach or I will let them game (Minecraft mostly) or we'll game together, usually Borderlands 2, Left 4 Dead 2 or WWE 2k20 for a little while.

And there is a likely crowd buying Madden today, that used to love the game, and grew out of it. For what ever reason they are buying it today, they're noticing how much better, by leaps and bounds, the game is since they were players back in the good ole days.

All that makes sense and I appreciate the work you do. I guess for me, it just boils down to my displeasure with the current business models. Being a little older I would like to think all businesses would value the core customer base, but that world doesn't exist anymore. I just think it is difficult for a company to expand marketshare and maintain quality of product.

I'm of the mindset that this really doesn't matter, the same as negative reviews don't matter. I say that because Madden currently is the only NFL licensed game. We all might be the hardcore niche audience, but the people that the game is geared towards will still buy it simply because it's NFL.
Add in that millions of people are at home and in several states kids are learning from home and you have a perfect recipe for big sales numbers.
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I'll give it a shot:
So retail sales and digital sales are obviously different, right?
When you go to a Gamestop or Best Buy, there are 100s of copies of Madden there to buy because the retailers buy the games direct from EA (at a lower wholesale price) and sell them at a higher retail price.
EA is claiming that they have a 20% increase in "sell-through" which does equate to more sales (in a way) but not necessarily more revenue for EA. Why? Because Best Buy already purchased the copy.
Its like if you sell me 5 T-shirts for 30 bucks each and I turn around and sell those shirts for $40 bucks each to other people. You can brag about how popular those shirts are based on the fact that I sold those shirts but you didnt get any of the direct revenue from my sale.
Digital sales are different because EA doesnt have to sell them to a retailer at a lower retail price. They can sell direct to the consumer for $60.
Whats strange to me is why more people are buying hard copies of a game during a pandemic? I couldnt imagine going to a Best Buy to buy a game when I could download from the safety of my home for the same price.

Engagement is a weird one for me as well. To say no one is playing it so let's not worry about it could also mean no ones playing it because it hasn't changed in a decade so no one cares anymore. It's like the thought doesn't occur that maybe if we made it better or even just changed it up more people would play.
I remember a few years ago when the Toronto Blue Jay's had the longest no playoff streak in the MLB. Fans had enough and the ownership said "if more people came out to the ballpark, we would spend more money". That is the most backassward way to look at it. Put a good product on the field and people will come out. Ownership caved and spent money and the Jay's had top 5 attendance for 5 years in a row.
Back on this though, I'm not surprised. I get the rage, I really do. In a lot of ways I do feel like this game just should be better by now and it's hard not to feel like EA is apathetic about it all. The reality is though, this game isnt a 1 out of 10 like a lot of people are portraying it as. It's a better game than it was last year. It just truly is. Should it be better? Well ya. More than that though, it should be different or fresh and it isnt so rightfully so it's getting dinged by actual critics. The consensus I've read though and I'd have to agree, is that plays a pretty good game of football.
I also am curious to see how many people are playing after NBA 2k comes out. Madden has an amazing release window which I think contributes to the sales. People are itching for a new sports game by August.

Right, and this is the thing I wish people would separate out when talking about the game. You can hate the business model, and the lack of franchise, but appreciate that many people play it differently and at different levels of investment, and to many of them it is good. Instead what we get is people lashing out because their way of gaming isn't catered to and therefor the product as a whole must stink.
The just said The Yard had 17 Million games played this week, that is insane. I played a couple and it is fun, but I am still a hardcore franchise guy. In the end, I just can separate my personal feelings about the way I game from the total picture of the game.

Congrats to EA. Gonna be interesting to see the landscape once other NFL games start getting released.

Is this the thread where I get to say M21 is the best gameplay I've experienced in the series to date? Not sure if that's allowed yet.

The missing piece to that puzzle is that “sell-through” is copies sold relative to copies shipped. Between the pandemic and half of launch sales last year being digital, did EA ship less physical copies this year, and if so, by how much? We don’t know. Which makes that “20% increase in sell-through” pretty vague.
FWIW, EA isn’t claiming any sales records yet, whereas last year for launch week they claimed record amounts of digital copies sold and pre-sales.
I’d also be curious how many franchise games have been played vs The Yard games...

Exactly, their sell-through claim is bogus because they’ve offered no figures on how many physical copies were available to buy. It’s entirely likely that they sent less to retailers because of the virus and the likelihood that fewer people are entering stores and online sales of everything have soared. Striking how many of those who like to talk on social media about how great EA are jumped all over it and failed to spot the significance of inserting that word.

Gamestop was telling folks to preorder since there were less physical copies all around to be shipped. Which is not a reputable source at all. But it may have brought in more preorders to sell which could contribute to higher physical copies.
#fixmaddenfranchise

Someone mentioned there were currently 1 Million cloud franchises made, now we know a lot are test leagues, but we also know a lot still don't go cloud, so that would be a really interesting stat...one I may see if I can dig up.

You also have to remember that in other countries, like here in Canada, most stores dont get direct from EA. We have middle men 3rd party distributors. They have a crap ton sitting in a warehouse somewhere that are still considered sales.

It would be interesting to see what the true sales look like compared to last year. I would expect them to be the same or more since Covid has had a positive impact on the gaming inudstry. Before Madden came out, I know the likes of EA< Take-Two, Blizzard, Activision, and others had seen revenues up 40-50% thanks to the pandemic.
It's already been noted that this press release isn't saying what many think it is, but I don't doubt the game has sold well given the NFL shield and Covid leading to record game sales.

Congratulations
Nothing will change
Anyone that is complaining about it that purchased it stop bitching about this game now. Nothing will change this or next year

Something is off about this whole thing. EA releasing a statement about “sell through” units instead of just sales. They say games played is up 50% but don’t say what mode.
The yard is a new mode and it’s pick up and play right? 3 drives per team and you’re done? Of course that mode is going to get tried out and it’s design makes it easy to play a lot more games in less time online.
They were quick to throw free codes out all over the place which isn’t something a company does if their sales are up 20% from the year before no matter how much noise is being made on twitter.
I have no doubt Madden is still a top seller and millions of games are being played but this sounds like more damage control and I don’t believe the sales are as good as EA would like the world to believe
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I think it's fair to say things already have changed. Stuff we've been begging for for years like coaching staffs, scouting changes, and other additions are coming in M22. Along with quality of life updates for this year's game. I think EA now understands how important Franchise mode is and I think they'll hesitate to completely ignore it again.
Complaining works, we forced change. I don't see any reason to boycott Madden 21 anymore. I'm having ton of fun with it.

It absolutely is something a live service video game company does, and Madden is a live service video game.
It is more important that you get players into your game's ecosystem to provide opponents for other players (literally every game mode in Madden is online head-to-head), to add content to the various services the game provides for other players to consume (notably Madden Share, the MUT Auction House, and Franchise cloud leagues), and to get players into the game's economies so they start spending money (MUT and The Yard). None of those things function without players themselves organically making them work.
We know very well that EA makes more money from post-launch revenue than unit sales these days, they've said so in many previous earnings reports. To that end, just getting people into the game to start creating that revenue is more important to them than selling the game upfront.
Agnostic of how live service video games are actually monetized, I can't remember the last time EA didn't drop a ton of Madden NFL codes on Twitter and other social media outlets during the game's immediate launch window. Especially in recent years that's business as usual for them, for the reasons I mentioned above.

The list of features they put out are things they WANT in franchise mode not things that will definitely be in 22.

You can kiss the possibility of anything changing goodbye. It's a sad day in the world of video game football.

I'm not surprised by these numbers at all & new modes like The Yard are only going to bring more & more gamers to the game especially the younger crowds.

Disappointing to hear. Really thought more people would skip after they completely ignored Franchise mode.

Agreed! Yes, its definitely allowed. It still has it's moments but overall a much better experience & product imo. Be interested in the sales after next week.

For the sake of repetition, these aren't sales figures. These are 'sell-through' which is a metric measured by how many of the physical copies of the game provided to retailers are sold.
If a retailer receives 100 copies and sells 40, that's a 40% sell-through.
if a retailer receivers 50 copies and sells 30, that's a 60% sell-through.
An increase sell-through of 20%.
But they still sold less.
None of us know whether this is what has happened because we don't have the figures, but EA very specifically included the word 'sell-through' in their statement because that's what their figures are.

I'm at the point to where I would buy Madden '91 right now if I needed to used NFL-video games as an escape (from the kids).
With all that's going on, no surprise if this does end up being the best selling Madden ever. LOL. They could have put "Unique Presentation Not Even Seen on Sundays" and "All New Roster Update" and "Your Favorite Past Features Are Back Again" on the back of the box and it would have sold like hotcakes.
You just gotta find whatever enjoyment you can out of it.

Pretty sad and not exactly helping to get rid of the of the dumb and ignorant sports fan stereotype...smh

I saw about 20 copies at walmart yesterday and my first thought was its not selling like they thought it would.
Usually new games are sold out quick. To be a week old and that many copies still on the self tells me the consumer market is down compared to projections.
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They specifically included the word “sell through” and in turn focused on physical sales at a time when digital sales are becoming the preferred purchase more and more every year.
For what is worth, They did something similar with Madden 19 if you search it. The release simply said “strong first week of sales” and then went on to say that the series has sold 100 million copies since it began. Instead of giving 19s numbers. Of course 19 was still the 4th best selling game of the year that year.
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All EA & NFL cares about unfortunately, sales numbers. All the casual gamers(those who play MUT and now The Yard)who don't watch NFL or know very little about the NFL buy the game every year not realizing the damage they are doing.
If MUT and Yard can't tell you who the QB of the Patriots was BEFORE Tom Brady, they can't buy Madden until they learn some NFL history lol. Or you define sales numbers by casual and true fans. If your true fans sales are low, then something is wrong lol

I was at BB opening day and maybe 20 copies for both systems were out.
I was the only one in the store at the time and it was before noon.
This also tells me people aren't heading into the stores anytime soon.
My wife and I went to a Days Inn in the Twin Cities Tuesday evening.
There were 10 cars overnight in the parking lot, front desk told us usually between 40 to 50 cars during normal Tuesday's pre-Covid.

I don't think the NFL cares, PERIOD, provided Madden isn't reflecting poorly on the Sheild.
I don't think they realize what an innovative product could do for them in terms of growing their brand. Might be hard to quantify in a short window. But if this was the addictive product it was 20 years ago it would only lend to what their fanbase could be going forward.

I bet digital sales are up
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I don't believe it... they have bots and paid purchasers similar to record labels boosting sales to create a buzz..  

I think the NFL believes they are helping EA's brand. I would suspect fans of the NFL seek out Madden rather than fans of Madden seeking out the NFL.

Key phrase being "sell-though" (not sales) being up 20%. Sell-through is simply the % of games sold versus what was held in inventory for that month. To say "sell-through is up 20%" can be very misleading as EA could've simply shipped fewer physical copies to retailers this year in comparison to the same period last year. Somewhat of an irresponsible and misleading post by OS.  3Q earnings will be the tale of the tape (at least for the 1st month of sales).

If only I appreciated football as much as you, then I could play. But alas, I like MUT and The Yard. Does my time playing Action PC Football or FBpro count still?
Would love to know how someone that seems to care so much about sim and franchise ever considered Madden worth their time enough to consider it worth complaining about?
That is, if I rate as worthy of even asking you a question.

"the damage they are doing."
That's a bit dramatic lol

Video game sales in general have gone up since Covid if you google it you will see it. What Madden has done is no surprise to me. PR move? Maybe. Their facts seem to be misleading into fooling people into thinking the game is better than it is based on "sales" alone. They will always have their sales and for that, mission accomplished. Sales is the bottom line for EA and others.
I hope Madden does improve but the yard isn't enough nor minor gameplay improvements to justify getting this year's edition. I will wait and see what future improvements actually happen, based on what is done not what is said.

This is a genuine question
Why arent more people mad at the NFL?
The part I get is that its ultimately EAs fault for the finished product and while the outrage can be a bit over the top I can comprehend why we are where we are.
The part that kinda throws me is how a lot of people are seemingly mad at EA for the exclusive license. It almost always seems the anger is aimed at EA. Honestly you can think EA is a crappy company but I'd argue from a business standpoint that they'd be crappier if they didnt try for exclusivity. It was up to the NFL to agree to it.
The NFL giving exclusivity honestly bugs me more. I dont feel the least bit confident that any company has enough incentive to try their hardest in an exclusive situation. Hell, even athletes are better during contract years lol.

But, how many of them are still active or were active long? I mean, I've set up 25? myself after fooling around with settings and what not. That number could be misleading.
It's all moot anyway. It's always all about the money.

That happens every year, though, so it should be a valuable comparative number even if the raw # is not a perfect representation of franchise engagement.

I know my hate for madden run deep. I refuse to believe this. So i look at dates of madden 20 & 21 debuts. Madden 20 was released Friday aug 2 and 21 was released on a Monday aug 28th. So yeah that increase sounds about right being 21 had more days at retail than 20 during the week

Ironically this is the first year Madden has ever been good.
QB play is finally somewhat realistic. Running game is finally realistic. Defense is ok, the best its been in the franchise. They still need to add things like double coverage though.
Controls are finally precise, huge improvement over last year.
Where was everyone when Madden was unplayable and every aspect of the game was grossly unrealistic? Why not protest then..

They said first week of sales, not Aug sales. But thanks for playing.

U don’t get it. I never said month. EA didn’t say 7 days. They said week.
Madden 20 was on sale from fri-Sunday last year (3days)
Madden 21 was on sale from mon-Sunday (6days)

It doesn't matter either way because the "sell-through" figure is calculated against the number of copies that EA sends to retailers, and given we don't know what that was last year OR this year (and they could be considerably different) it's an erroneous comparison.

A strong lesson in confirmation bias right here.

You think it better than the modded (say SABO mod) M20 on PC?

It’s not
If any game has more days on sale than the other it will sell more.
Madden 21 sold 20% better because it had more days on sale it’s first week than 20

Seeing EA touting sell-through after seeing them spend most of the week trying to give copies away either directly, or through their social media influencers is hilarious.
I work in corporate retail too during these trying times and can appreciate the mathematical gymnastics by the demand planning/public relations teams to try and grab onto something shiny to publish.

I don't... Otherwise, that would have led off the PR instead of "X hours of more playtime this year!".

Stop. Buying. The. Game.

Some people enjoy Madden. Some people enjoy MUT and The Yard, and competitive game mode.
I don't play those modes, but I can see why others do and enjoy the game.
Those people won't stop buying the game. We just have to hope they prioritize franchise like they are claiming they will do.

I haven't played on PC so can't say. I'm sure it's amazing. Unfortunately, the people using that mod represent a hyper-niche audience & always will.

This doesn't mean anything without the sell-in figures from last year and this year.

What's the next game OS can help trash?

Right???? Lol
You know I'm more in the it's good not great boat with Madden but it's funny that I'm the same position with nba 2k that a lot of you have been with Madden.
NBA2k21 gameplay is the best i've ever seen, and I love the shot meter. But it feels like I need to go into witness protection if I want to say that online. Lmao

.. or the reviews can be seen for what they are;
Shots over the bow by frustrated consumers, in hopes of getting more out of these products in the future.

Yep....this is why review bombing has no meaning now.

It’s also the lowest rated 2K from the critics side as well as the users... but I guess pointing out that critics gave this years Madden and 2K games historically bad reviews for the series gets in the way of the “user review bombing makes criticism irrelevant” narrative...

That's a leap dude. There's a massive difference between games getting 6 out of 10 with constructive criticism like reviews do, to "this games trash" .04 out of 10 review bombing. I'm not gonna put words in anyone else's mouth but in no way would I ever equate user review bombing to criticism being irrelevant. Sounds more like your bias then mine. Just sayin.

I'm just gonna say it... The vast majority of people who buy sports games do not read reviews on IGN,metacritic, or read the hashtags on twitter when making their decision to buy... Shocking, I know.

Problem with NBA 2k21 is, who wants to pay DOUBLE for this game, when you have to buy it again when new console comes out in a few months? 2K already gets enough of our money! At lest with madden, you only need to buy ONE copy and get a free upgrade!:cavalry:

Everyone here knows this deep down, but the social media/forum bubble makes people forget it, especially whey they have a particular axe to grind about a game.
Goalposts will be moved as much as possible to present a scenario where folks can envision a situation where what they want to happen in the football gaming space somehow manifests.

I get it. I was completely caught off-guard when, after the collapse of FBPro 99 ended with its recall, that not a single publisher made single move to fill the action sports sim gap left by Sierra Sports folding. Like, the genre just ended that quick.
I had spent years in the FBPro community and it felt huge and alive. Custom rosters, plays, gameplans. Helper apps to install free agency and salary caps. Global editors. We had an app that let us chat as a group while we watch simple 8 bit animations show the results of each play as memebers watched the sim play out together.
But it turns out, that was all of us. There were hundreds of us, maybe thousands. It felt huge. It wasn't.

Not trying to justify Take-Two's decision there but I think part of their reasoning is the fact that NBA 2k21 is being completely rebuilt for next-gen whereas Madden 21 will be a port with next-gen enhancements. So in TT2's eyes next-gen NBA 2k21 is a different game.

According to Gamespot Madden was the #1 selling digital PS4 Game in August.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/madden-nfl-21-was-augusts-best-selling-digital-ps4/1100-6482073/

Pretty much what I've been saying along. People aren't going to hurt EA from a sales standpoint.

EA also makes over $1B a year from the Ultimate Team modes. They know this is their cash cow. We're lucky they focus on any other mode at all.

People have different expectations or hopes for what effect, if any, the hashtag and review bombing campaign has.
Anyone who hopes that Madden goes from one of the top selling games to a dud in a few months needs a reality check and, apologies if this sounds harsh, they need to get over themselves.
My hope is that Madden fails to meet sales goals and projections.