By Sagar V. Mankar 
Electronic Arts (EA) has released its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, reporting a 3% decline in revenue and a 6% decrease in net bookings compared to the same period last year.
The company generated $1.88 billion in revenue and $2.22 billion in net bookings during this quarter. Despite these declines, net income saw a slight increase of 1%, reaching $293 million.
CEO Andrew Wilson acknowledged that the financial performance did not meet expectations, attributing the shortfall primarily to the underperformance of EA Sports FC 25. Released in September 2024, the game had a strong launch but failed to maintain momentum throughout the quarter. Wilson noted that many players continued engaging with previous iterations of the franchise during the holiday season, leading to lower-than-anticipated sales for the new title. He also cited issues with game balance, which affected player engagement.
In response to these challenges, EA implemented a significant update on January 16, 2025, coinciding with the Team of the Year event. According to Wilson, this update received a strong positive response from the community, resulting in player retention rates for EA Sports FC 25 surpassing expectations in the following month.
The company’s other major release, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, launched on October 31, 2024, also faced its share of challenges. As per company reports, despite a high-quality launch, the game failed to capture a wide enough audience in what proved to be a highly competitive market. The title engaged approximately 1.5 million players in its first two months, falling short of EA’s expectations of around 3 million. This underperformance led to significant changes at its developer BioWare, with most of its staff being relocated to other EA teams while work continues on the next Mass Effect game. Wilson suggested that the game’s single-player focus might have limited its appeal, indicating that incorporating shared-world features and deeper engagement could have attracted a larger audience.
Looking at the platform breakdown, consoles remained EA’s strongest revenue generator, bringing in over $1.2 billion last quarter. Mobile gaming contributed $276 million, while PC and other platforms combined for $392 million. Each platform experienced a slight year-over-year decline. However, mobile showed promising growth with a 118% year-over-year increase on a GAAP basis. This growth was partly driven by EA Sports FC Mobile, which saw a double-digit year-over-year increase in new players and engagement.
Looking ahead, EA has adjusted its projections for the fourth quarter, anticipating net bookings between $1.44 billion and $1.59 billion. This represents a 13% decline compared to previous forecasts and a 4% decrease year-over-year. Canfield attributed this outlook to expected declines in the Global Football segment and Apex Legends, though he noted that these would be partially offset by the release of Split Fiction.
Despite these challenges, EA isn’t standing still. The company has announced several upcoming projects, including the next Battlefield game scheduled for 2026. The recent launch of Battlefield Labs, a community test program, has exceeded expectations according to Wilson.
The company is also seeing growth in The Sims franchise, with the MySims: Cozy Bundle performing particularly well – notably, half of its purchasers were new to EA’s ecosystem. EA Sports College Football 26, and a new Skate game are also on the way.
Wilson also states that Respawn Entertainment is developing a “major update for Apex Legends, named Apex 2.0,” which they plan to release “after the next Battlefield’s launch.”
Additionally, EA plans to expand its offerings beyond traditional games by scaling its EA Sports App and exploring advertising and sponsorship opportunities.