EA Sports FC 24 trumpets 11m players in first week, 1m more than FIFA 23

EA's long-running football series might have jettisoned the FIFA license, but the publisher's keen to let everyone know it's doing just fine without it - and has announced that this year's iteration, EA Sports FC 24, has reached 11.3m players in its first week of release.

That's compared to the 10.3m players that hopped into last year's FIFA 23 during the same period - a figure EA referred to as "record-breaking" and the "biggest launch period" in the franchise's history at the time.

EA Sports FC 24's 11.3m players would certainly suggest the series' success hasn't been hampered by the loss of the FIFA brand, then, but EA does note this year's figures include EA Play subscribers, so those numbers don't necessarily all equate to sales.

The publisher is also touting a "20% year over year" increase in new players for the series, and the celebrations aren't just reserved for EA Sports FC 24; that game's figures are largely mirrored by the free-to-play EA Sports FC Mobile, which saw 11.2m downloads in its first ten days of release.

EA Sports FC launched for PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Switch at the end of September, earning itself 3 out of 5 stars in Eurogamer's review. "There are improvements, and there are problems, business as usual," contributor Josh Wise wrote. "The era of EA Sports' FIFA may be over, but the game goes on."