After an 11-year hiatus, EA Sports decided to bring back their incredibly popular College Football series with College Football 25 thanks to the implementation of compensation for student-athletes introduced in 2021. And for EA Sports, this decision to bring the series back has paid off in a major way.
EA Sports of course stopped making college video games after both Electronic Arts and the NCAA were named as co-defendants in a lawsuit by former UCLA men’s basketball player Ed O’Bannon in 2014 over the NCAA’s use of the images and the likenesses of its former student-athletes for commercial purposes.
O’Bannon’s case eventually led to the NCAA vs. Alston case in 2021 which changed collegiate athletics forever with the implementation of NIL deals in college sports, which opened the door for EA Sports to again start making college sports games again.
Since the game’s release in July, the game has undergone numerous patches and updates to keep the game fresh and smooth without any bugs that make the game unplayable for users.
All of this hard work to keep the game popular amongst sports fans has seemed to pay off for EA Sports.
According to data from the research and analytics company Circana, which was first reported on by Mike Straw of Insider Gaming, College Football 25 now ranks as the highest-selling sports video game ever, taking that honor from NBA 2K21. On top of this, it also ranks as the highest-selling video game of any genre in 2024.
On one hand, this makes sense considering how much anticipation there was for the game due to the lengthy hiatus of the series from EA Sports. However, when you compare viewership numbers between the NFL and college football over the years, it is perhaps quite jarring to see the College Football series doing far better than the Madden series this year.
The success of College Football 25 presents EA Sports with a number of possibilities. Is it possible that this success could result in them bringing back the college basketball video game series in the future?
Regardless, while we do not know the exact sales number of College Football 25, its favorable sales amongst other video games this year do potentially have some positive benefits for student-athletes down the road.
Student-athletes did not receive a percentage of the revenue generated from this year’s game, instead agreeing to a licensing deal that included a flat $600 payment and a free copy of the game to all who agreed to have their name, image, and likeness included in the game, which over 10,000 student-athletes agreed to.
Perhaps we could see student-athletes get some sort of a royalty deal in the future if the College Football series becomes a consistent powerhouse in the video game space like we have seen Madden be for years now.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.