Battlefield 5has sold 7.3 million copies, but that number missed EA’s expectations for the game by one million copies. That’s according to EA’s latest earnings call, where the publisher expressed hope thatBattlefield 5would continue to sell copies especially withupcoming game updatesand a planned battle royale mode.
EA shared some of the factors that the publisher believes went againstBattlefield 5meeting its sale expectations. First, EA said “the desire to make changes toBattlefield 5” pushed the game’s release into the busy and competitive month of November. Second, EA credited the loss in sales to focusing development resources on delivering the game’s single-player campaign, which was not well received by players and critics, instead of focusing on the game’supcoming Firestorm battle royale mode.
However, EA is hopeful that the game will regain what it sees as lost sales over the lifespan of the game, which EA expects to stay strong well into the year 2020. While EA did not share the current player population ofBattlefield 5, it did cite the fact thatBattlefield 1still has four million active users andBattlefield 4has two million active users as evidence of the longevity of the franchise’s games.
EA is no doubt hoping that the upcoming Firestorm battle royale mode will generate a boost in sales, but that mode will be entering an increasingly crowded market of battle royale games that includeCall of Duty’s Blackout,Fortnite,PUBG, andthe newly releasedApex Legendsfrom fellow EA studio Respawn Entertainment.
EA is clearly consideringBattlefield 5to be a live-service game, saying that with the release of the game’s Season 2 content in January it “became the largest Battlefield game ever.” With the plan to sustain the game for the next few years, EA shared its hopeful expectations for the game to continue to sell well into the future.
Battlefield 5is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
