Andy Marston
28 Nov 2023
While previous editions of EA Sports’ popular video game have featured female players, they had never previously featured in the game’s most popular mode, until now.
While previous editions of EA Sports’ popular video game FIFA have featured female players and FIFA23 was even updated with more women’s football content earlier this year, they had never previously featured in the game’s most popular mode, until now.
For the launch of FC24, EA finally brought female players into Ultimate Team, enabling them to mix with the men's players, as well as launching female ICONs into the game, too, including USWNT legend Mia Hamm.
“It’s something we really thought deeply about,” John Shepherd, executive producer at EA, told IGN at the time of the launch. “We feel we can play a really important role in the growth of that sport in introducing it to all of our fans. We just have this conviction that we believe we want to unite the world around football.”“Ultimate Team is a great place for that,” he continued. “It is a mode where you can build your fantasy team with different nationalities, different leagues, and different clubs. And so, it felt like a great spot to be able to do that.”
Arguably, this promotion of the women’s players into Ultimate Team, as well as the inclusion of legends cards is already helping to legitimise and normalise the support of top women's players and teams.
This is because FC24 is an extremely powerful media outlet for women's football to embrace.
The game, which launched on the 29th of September, registered over 11.3 million players within the first two weeks, according to GamesIndustry. Almost as many (11.2 million) users played FC24 on mobile in a similar time frame as well. That is a lot of eyeballs. Engaged eyeballs.
For Women’s Commercial Director at Chelsea FC, Zarah Al Kudcy, who recently became the first guest of the new Sports Pundit Podcast, the move is simply about giving the consumer the choice.
Given that within the first 24 days, 357 million unique Ultimate Team games took place with at least one female player in, it would seem that if you give people this choice, they are choosing to take it and mix their teams.
The data shared by EA Sports bodes particularly well for Al Kudcy’s Chelsea FC, and it will likely become a welcomed additional resource for her in commercial conversations, too.
The Chelsea FC women’s team was reported to be part of the most picked female line up and was also the second most picked women’s team in the entire game (behind FC Barcelona).
“[This] proof point of how people play it helps us to understand the motivation [of consumers] and also hopefully helps EA understand some of the drivers behind game purchase and also in-game purchases as well,” explained Al Kudcy.
It also significantly boosts the commercial viability of some of the top female players, such as Sam Kerr, who previously broke into the history books by becoming the first female to feature on the global cover of FIFA23.
With a growing recognition among young fans, players like Kerr now have a platform to captivate audiences like never before, as well as an additional proof point to bring up in their own commercial negotiations. In Kerr’s case, as the most picked female player in the game.
“We're very lucky that we have Sam Kerr as one of the faces of our team,” said Al Kudcy. “When we went to the World Cup in the summer, you couldn't walk around Sydney without seeing that cover with her on the front around the whole city, which is great exposure for us as a team and as a club.”
For many young fans, the video game is the main way that they engage with the sport. Having the best players, clubs, and tournaments available in-game, provides the women’s game a whole lot more visibility and opportunity to engage with these fans.
“We will probably have a number of Chelsea fans that interact with the club mainly through the game. Like they choose [to play with Chelsea,] but they'll probably never come and watch a game at Stamford Bridge because you can't fit 500 million people into a 40,000 stadium,” said Al Kudcy. “As rightsholders, clubs and teams have a job to understand the value of [these fans] and how we [can] actually better serve their needs… [For instance,] is it that someone who plays EAFC is more likely to buy from our online store and connect via social? We're just at the precipice of understanding all those different unique journeys.”
The continued inclusion and involvement within the game will only help with developing that understanding.
Ultimately, at a time of record breaking TV deals for the NWSL and record viewership numbers for the WSL, the impact that EA Sports will play within the women’s football ecosystem should not be overlooked as another major factor in growing the game.