EA Sports FC24 is second biggest UK (physical) launch of the year, only behind Zelda TOTK

EAFC 24 is doing pretty good for itself in terms of physical sales in the UK, though it can’t quite match up to the behemoth that is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

We don’t have precise numbers just yet for EA Sports FC 24, but GamesIndustry.biz’s Christopher Dring has given an insight into what the sales have been like since the rebranded football game released last Friday. According to Dring, the game’s physical launch in the UK is the second highest of the year, with only Nintendo’s Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ahead of it – unsurprising, considering that as of August the RPG had hit over 18 million sales.

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While EA Sports FC 24 is doing well for itself, that doesn’t quite mean it’s doing as good as last year. Dring reported that physical launch sales are down 30% compared to last year’s FIFA 23, but he did note that EA “had expected some short-term impact as a result of the rebrand.” It’s not surprising that sales are down, a rebrand like that is sure to confuse some players, but whether it matters that much considering EA no longer needs to pay the massive FIFA licensing fee is another question that’s difficult to answer.

Not all of the physical sales are down, though, as again according to Dring, UK launch sales of EA Sports FC 24 are “slightly” up on Switch compared to FIFA 23. The reason for this is almost definitely due to the fact that it’s the first actually new version of the game on Switch since FIFA 18. Up to this point, the Switch version of the game would just receive an update of kits and players, rather than an entire new game, so it’s not all that surprising that sales are up.

A change in name isn’t the only new thing about EA Sports FC 24, as it’s also added in Evolutions in Ultimate Team, which lets you upgrade the stats of lower-rated players.