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EA unveiled its financial results for the first quarter of the financial year 2020 (that’s the three months ended June 30th 2019) and it seems that digital is still going through the roof for the publisher, despite not having released any title during this Q1.
“Digital net bookings for the trailing twelve months was $3.73bn (£3.07bn),” the report stated, which represented 76 per cent of all net bookings and a five per cent increase year-on-year.
For the three-month period ended June 30th, digital was prominent. Total net revenue reached $1.209bn (£997m) during that period. Only 13.2 per cent of that revenue was made out of physical products, which represented $160m (£132m), while digital net revenue reached £1.049bn (£866m) – so 86.8 per cent of EA’s total revenue came from digital during Q1 FY20.
The gap between physical and digital is widening year-on-year, as for the same period in 2018, packaged good represented 15.8 per cent of the total net revenue ($1.137bn/£939m). Total net revenue for the three-month period ended June 30th 2019 was up 6.3 per cent year-on-year.
EA also highlighted some key performances during the period: FIFA Ultimate Team for instance had “more than three million players logging in daily during the Team of the Season in-game event,” the report stated. “During the quarter, The Sims 4’s expansion packs and game pack downloads increased 55 per cent year-over-year. At quarter end, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes had nearly 80 million players life-to-date.”
For the twelve months ended June 30th 2019, revenue was slightly up 3.8 per cent year-on-year from $4.84bn (£3.99bn) to $5.02bn (£4.14bn).
CEO Andrew Wilson commented: “We had a strong start to FY20, bringing rich new experiences to our growing communities for Apex Legends, EA Sports, The Sims and more. From great new games to live services with longevity, subscriptions on more platforms and competitive gaming for more franchises, we’re pushing to lead with innovation, quality and choice for our players.”
COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen added: “We delivered operating results significantly above our expectations, driven by broad strength across our core franchises. This quarter shows how the power of our portfolio strategy, combined with live services, delivers strong results. We believe we have the right ingredients in place to deliver fun for our players and success for our business.”
