Despite what Sony and Microsoft both want you to believe, EA, not Activision Blizzard, is the publisher driving the majority of user engagement on consoles these days. That's according to research done by Ampere Analysis, and they've put out a lovely graph from which much can be gleaned.
EA has been consistently dominant over the past six months, no doubt, likely thanks to its excellent annual roster of sporting titles like FIFA and NHL. It has one of the better Battle Royales in Apex Legends, a GOTY 2023 contender in the excellent Dead Space remake, and the promising Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on the horizon. Your one friend still grimly playing Battlefield 2042 will tell you it's a lot better now, an assessment which might actually be accurate and is supported by rising player numbers.
EA certainly seems to have found a release cadence and formula that works. Now watch as an even bigger fish attempts to acquire them, causing journalists everywhere to tear out what little hair we have left.
Are you surprised by this revelation? Do you foresee a disturbance to this balance in the future? It isn't likely to be Ubisoft, which ranks so low it's in danger of falling off entirely. Present your findings in the comments section below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 38
tfw Battlefield 2042 of all things earns a second life. I guess giving it away on ps+ and making changes people have begged for since the beginning really did wonders.
No EA is in a renaissance currently, and has been quite strong in their releases for the past year.
I'm more surprised by Microsoft having more engagement than Sony, with Microsoft having very little releases and Sony having some big hitters last year. Maybe its gamepass driving numbers?
@ATaco yes bf2042 is a lot better these days but i do think the huge rise in players online is because it was included in your sub. To be honest EA has put out a couple of great games but everything else has been just above average. Itching to try out their new golf game but i'm waiting to see how much game is locked behind the inevitable pay wall..
@Vivisapprentice I suspect a large chunk of that Microsoft number is Minecraft.
With the sports games this does not surprise me in the slightest. Activision really only has one big game. Meanwhile EA has the yearly sports games on top of whatever they decide to release in a calendar year.
@Ryall It probably helps that any game microsoft publishes is easily accessible to try on both pc and xbox.
@Ryall that makes a big amount of sense
For a moment I found it odd that Microsoft was above Sony, but I guess that’s mostly Minecraft.
Taking a look at this chart, Ubisoft is really really bad.
If this chart shows one thing it's just how separate the industry of ea sports/apex, Fortnite, and cod are from literally everything else. It's so stratified out shouldn't even be part of the discussion of the industry. That's it's own industry, everyone else is all pretty closely aligned really.
@Ryall @Vivisapprentice Game Pass, Minecraft, Hifi Rush hit big. Doom and the like counts, ESO, a lot of combined things. Sony games don't really drive engagement charts as it's mostly big launch month then flatlines. That's way they're going hard into GaaS.
You can see the flip flop between Sony and MS on that chart between GoWR peaking, then Hifi Rush releasing.
@Vivisapprentice Minecraft; and also most MS games have a strong focus on multiplayer. Most Sony games so far tend to be campaign focused and once that’s done, that’s done. They basically just have GT and The Show as games with continuous replay, yet people still play Halo Infinite, Gears 5, Forza, Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, ESO, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, that zombie game, etc.
Things might change for Sony a bit when TLOU2 multiplayer arrives. I do wonder if this measurement is or isn’t counting Destiny as a Sony properly yet.
@Vivisapprentice Sony may release some big hitters… But people play that for a day or two then nothing. On top of Minecraft like others have mentioned. Microsoft have stuff like Forza Horizon, Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Halo… etc. Stuff designed to keep player engaged with consistent release of new content.
I like some EA titles and now they have Criterion and Codemasters (along with slightly mad and Evolution) I like even more.
They have started the remakes too which is great, they just need to do Saboteur for me and they might just overrule Unisoft as my favourite.
Duh?
EA has Apex Legends, FIFA, Madden and all of those are huge live service games that are played constantly. Especially FIFA.
Meanwhile, ActiBlizz has Call of Duty. And now Overwatch 2.
It's almost like Microsoft was right when they said that ABK purchase is more about Blizzard and PC presence and mobile gaming, than it is about Call of Duty
I'm not surprised at all, the entire focus of whether the deal should go through is COD and that's because outside of that and to a lesser extent Overwatch, Activision is largely irrelevant these days. Where as EA has multiple big sports games games, Apex legends and now a rather successful line of big single player games too
I'm actually enjoying BF2042 a looooot, and Apex is usually fun for me although i suck at it, i dont play fifa online but offline it's my safe place. I've no problems with EA's video games tbh, i'm more of a fan.
Interesting to see that ActiBlizz declined significantly after that release of COD in November, guess afterwards people are just back to playing Fortnite
Between the yearly sports games and Apex Legends I'm not surprised. Don't underestimate just how massive Star Wars is, either. Tons of people are still discovering Jedi Fallen Order, tons of people still play the two Battlefront games too.
So the more Multiplayer games you have the higher up the list you will be hence why Sony and Ubisoft are quite low. That will most likely change once TLOU multiplayer comes out and they count destiny 2 this year as it will be the first full year under sony ownership.
It is interesting to see EA really thriving as of late. As people have stated already they have a strong presence in many areas of the industry. Here's hoping Bioware can get their act together so EA can say they have a presence in the RPG space as well again.
@Jamesblob Uhh. Your logic has a big hole.
According to this chart, Microsoft is positioned higher then Sony. So if Microsoft "bribed" Ampere to put ActiBlizz lower, wouldn't it make sense to downplay their own share of market to make them smaller also?
@Godot25 That would be too obvious DUH
@GrimReaper Yeah sure it would be suspicious to put Microsoft below Sony
@Tharsman I believe Bungie still self publish Destiny, as Bethesda still do their studios games. I assume ABK will be the same. So similar to the Metacritic publisher rankings these won't be included in Sony/MS unless their structure changes.
Great point on multiplayer. 100% agree.
Not Surprised at all - EA has a number of 'big' Sports games as well as a few other games (Apex, Battlefield etc) and also released Dead Space too which likely added to their 'play hours' too.
A/B shows what you would expect, a sharp increase around OW2 and CoD releases which then drops off. Warzone (F2P) obviously still helps them keep a 'sizeable' playerbase too...
So post MS AVB deal MS will have the lead every month in this chart. kind of shows why Sony did not want this to happen.
FIFA > COD
Be interesting to see if those numbers are similar next year after EA have lost the license.
Looks like MS has an average larger monthly share then Sony too!
Well that's a surprise after all their public whinging.
The only games ea has published recently that are worth playing are Dead space and ME remasters everything else is straight trash designed to scam people who are bad with their money, i like NHL but until they actually put effort and passion into the game i will continue to wait for each iteration to go free same for madden.
What is 8 plus 10 🤔 that's the next step for Microsoft. Top of the list and leagues ahead of Sony and their great actual games that take writing crews and effort and passion for years to make. It's quite sad really, but that's what gaming is, casual with some bits on the side for us lot. And it means the publishers that can pump out games every year with just a slight skin update are the ones that dominate.
Poor Ubisoft. Their online games don't draw, and therefore get washed away in these stats. But I think people are way too harsh on their single player games, because I know I'd rather play three more assassins creeds and a far cry, than a pirate boat online game that will peak at about 1200 players 😬😬😬
Cause of fifa the 🐐
EA's hold on sports is what I believe is holding them there. Battlefield used to be really good but wouldn't keep them above CoD like that.
EA holds a single IP of interest for me... Mass Effect. Hopefully it won't be botched like so many other modern titles. Should they re-add the co-op multiplayer aspect back in, I'll probably be adding to their online numbers.
As much as EA pisses me off sometimes and as much as I detest them for ruining some of my favorite franchises, I also can’t deny some of my favorite franchises in gaming are published by EA. Such as Dead Space, Crysis, Battlefield and Battlefront. But I also will NEVER, EVER pick up another Battlefield game until it’s gotten stellar reviews by both the critics and the gaming community at large. I thought BF V was bad at launch? I hadn’t seen anything until the unmitigated stinking dumpster fire that was BF 2042.
That whole chart makes a lot of sense to me:
@Jamesblob The most entertaining comment of the day. Thanks 👍
No wonder Sony is trying to get into more live service games. Makes sense from this perspective.
I honestly think EA losing the FIFA license is the catalyst for positive change. I'm looking forward to Jedi Survivor.
@AverageGamer that statement doesn't make sense people play playstation exclusives for a day or two then nothing lmao yh sure u mean boring halo thats Microsoft but gamers do play the games more than u think btw I play on xbox and playstation so no need reply with fanboy crap
@Falkirk4life Cause PlayStation games are usually a one and done situation until they release some type of dlc a year later. There nothing to do on games like uncharted or the last of us (didn’t use to be the case. These games once had multiplayer ) after you beat the story. No body is going to boot up those games to replay the story every week.
I beat Ratchet and Clank: Rift apart two years ago. These has been no reason for me to return to it since then. The next time I’ll probably play it is when it get a PC release so I can play on my 4090.
I beat Last of Us Remake Part 1 21hrs after release and have not returned to it either.
Since you decided to mention Halo. Halo at least have stuff to do after you beat the campaign. May it be multiplayer; either matchmaking or custom match game nights. The game has daily and weekly challenges to keep players playing every day and week, with a big new season every month. It has stayed installed on PC SSD since launch with me booting up the game every couple months even day.
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