As Electronic Art’s (EA) buyout closes, the spotlight will be on its most successful franchises; in particular EA Sports FC (EA FC). EA FC’s newest instalment – EA Sports FC 26 - launched this September and is off to a strong start, narrowly surpassing the previous instalment’s weekly active users (WAU) in its second week by 5%, and attracting an estimated 9.2m weekly active users globally across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. However, performance in the US market is mixed, with EA FC 26 second week WAUs surpassing EA FC 25’s by 7%, but lagging behind EA FC 24’s by 7% percent. EA FC 24’s achievements were due in part to the significant marketing spend and console platform support when rebranding the franchise following the loss of the FIFA license.

Despite the franchise’s success, EA Sports FC remains under-penetrated in the US where EA FC 25 averaged 2.7% of the territory’s gamers (September 2024- August 2025; across PlayStation, Xbox & Steam).  The upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted in North America, presents a unique opportunity for EA Sports FC 26 to increase its US user base, as detailed in Ampere’s recent report (available to Ampere clients here). Ampere’s Sports Consumer survey highlights that an estimated 13.6m US sports fans claim soccer is their favourite sport, with soccer now the 4^th most followed sport in the US. Additionally, there is significant overlap between EA Sports FC and US soccer fans’ demographics and media usage. Most crucial is that 78% of US soccer fans indicate that they play video games at least monthly.

However, cracking the US market will not be easy. Ampere’s Games Consumer survey highlights that US EA Sports FC players are distinct from their counterparts in Western Europe, where penetration of the game is still much higher. The most prominent difference is that the US market attracts two distinct EA FC gamer cohorts: 'Family Gamers' and 'Young Adult Competitors'. The two cohorts engage with similar discovery and social media channels, but for marketing a title, nuanced messaging is required as the two cohorts enjoy gaming for different reasons, and so their purchasing rationales vary.