FIFA is the new Madden, in the UK

by Ross Miller { Oct 7th 2008 at 10:00PM }

Some interesting statistics about Electronic Arts' recently launched FIFA09 in the U.K. (via Chart Track):

It is currently beating the sales rate of FIFA08 -- itself a bestselling UK game last year -- by 37.5%.
It debuted at the top of the PlayStation 2, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 charts.
Of those sales, 42% were on Xbox 360, making it the 3rd fastest selling game on Microsoft's format (behind GTA IV and Halo 3), while 40% were on PS3 where it is the 2nd fastest selling game (behind GTA IV). 11% go to PS2, 3% to PSP and the rest for PC, Wii and DS.

Just goes to show you that no matter the culture or continent, EA owns football. See the full top 10 list of All Formats software sales after the break.

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, fifa, fifa-09, uk, united-kingdom

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jake11 @ Oct 7th 2008 10:03PM

really? less than 3% on the wii for EA's biggest franchise in the UK? i thought that thing was selling like hotcakes there.

whookid @ Oct 7th 2008 10:11PM

I put that 3% down to the fact that you can get a 60gb 360 and Fifa for less than a Wii by itself. Plus, Fifa just doesn't play well on Wii.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Oct 7th 2008 10:20PM

I heard that FIFA '09 picked up a control scheme similar to PES'08's Wii controls, and I enjoyed PES'08Wii more than on the other platforms I've played it on. So did reviewers, apparently, and so far, FIFA 09 is getting great reviews on the Wii.

The crazy cost of the Wii in Europe may be why.

007craft @ Oct 7th 2008 11:58PM

when will the nintendo fans learn that the wii is being sold to casual non gamers who are buying it for wii sports ONLY. Its not the games that are selling the console.

They just got some wiis at my office (for the employees moral during breaks and lots and lots of people were asked if they had wiis. These are all regular folks too, mena nd women from 20 to 60. turns out a ton of them had wiis. I found more then 20 people with them who you would look at and never even think they would own a console (and probably never have in the past). When asked what games they all bought, the answer was the same all around, NONE. Aaround 90% just purchased the console and only play wii sports. The rest of the people bought guitar hero and/or wii fit. Out of over 200 employees, I only found one guy who actualy owned a wii and buys games for it (mario, resident evil, etc etc).

Nintendo is number one, and it has nothing at all to do with their games. The reason wii version games dont seell is exactly that. I mean a game like Gears of war comes out, its gonna sell 5+ million copies in a couple weeks. A game like mario comes out and it sells 1.5 million in a couple weeks. while still impressive, for a console with an even larger install base, it should be selling 5x as many copies.

/end useless internet rant that means nothing

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 8th 2008 3:00AM

My sister has one and buys a load of shovelware for it.. ugh.

I tried to reccomend Boom Blocks or whatever to no avail.

JoeTheBlow @ Oct 8th 2008 4:15AM

That is utterly staggering, i have to wonder if its even recovering its dev costs.

The console with severals times the install base of all the others combined can't even sell a hugely popular non-nintendo to a few percentage of its owners.
Jesus, EA have to be wondering why they bother.

Mr Khan @ Oct 8th 2008 8:06AM

Aye, Gears sells that 5 million in two weeks, then sales taper out to nothing flat, that 1.5 million Mario sells just keeps going, and going, and going

you see sales balance out a bit more later on, just not at the beginning.

Vcize @ Oct 8th 2008 10:26AM

Mr Khan, that's because 360 owners are actually gamers, and as such actually know what games are coming out. So when a huge game like Gears comes around, they've all been anticipating it for months and buy it up right away. By month three, everyone that wants it already has it, because they've all known about it for months.

On the Wii, a huge percentage of people have no idea what games are coming out. It sells well over time because many of the people don't find out its been released until much later. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've been in Wal-Mart or Best Buy lately and heard someone say "oh wow, there's a Mario Kart game for the Wii?". How many months ago did that game come out?

Sure, there are Wii owners that are "real" gamers and know when the big titles are coming out, but the sales that keep on going are from the casuals who buy the game 7 months later because they didn't even know the game existed until 7 months later.

Mr Khan @ Oct 8th 2008 11:15AM

I know that, but 007Craft's comment left the implication that Wii games don't sell as well overall, which left my reply that they do, just in a different way.

About 2/3 of Madden 08 Wii's sales came in September-December, while the bulk (~75%) of Madden 08 360 sales came in August. After everyone raised a big stink about Boom Blox pushing 55k in its first week, it has gone on to pass the 500k mark.

Long tail is especially prominent.

dICKIE DAVIS @ Oct 7th 2008 10:29PM

also many chains including Tesco (the uks biggest superstore) were selling it for $20 cheaper than other outlets and last years price.

PS the game rules

Scotto @ Oct 7th 2008 10:39PM

Oh God, I can't wait for this to hit our shores. I've been playing UEFA Euro 2008 every day for months now.

- Scott

UnnDunn @ Oct 7th 2008 10:51PM

FIFA outsells Madden every year. Everyone thinks EA is the house that Madden built. Well, Madden may have been the foundation, but FIFA is the walls and roof.

Yes, bad analogy.

Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 7th 2008 11:05PM

The question is whether or not it can beat PES. Then it would truly be the UK's Madden.

zMastaa @ Oct 7th 2008 11:41PM

It beat PES last year.......and it will do the same thing again this year quite clearly

Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 8th 2008 1:32AM

well dayum.

I'm curious to see PES and FIFA sales for the Asian

Maverick Saturn @ Oct 8th 2008 8:45AM

Japanese like footy? lol

Eh @ Oct 8th 2008 12:24PM

It was on par with PES in 07 for last gen systems, its no contest that 08 is way better than PES 2008 on current gen systems. Konami hasnt figured out how to make a NEW PES game for the new consoles, theyre still using the same crappy engine theyve been using on the PS2 but with pixel shading. FIFA 08 on the other hand is using a completely new engine built from scratch. PES is stale, and if they dont get their heads out of their ass and make a "next gen" game to compete with FIFA's technology then theres not going to be another one since even the PES fanboys are jumping ship (me included).

Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 8th 2008 1:30PM

The experience I've had with Soccer games is from what I've seen my foreign friends play, mainly from last generation. Guess I'm out of touch.

mike_p @ Oct 12th 2008 12:02PM

It's already generated a ton of feedback from Pro Evo fans. They actually favor this years FIFA (first touch and ball control) because this year's Pro Evo 09 demo did not impress.

t_m @ Oct 8th 2008 12:23AM

When ever (or at least since about 1993) has FIFA NOT been the UK/World's Madden?

Its only in the US that anyone cares about Madden...

Not to say its ever been the best football game out there, but its been selling like hotcakes ever since the first one...

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 8th 2008 3:19AM

Indeed, over here in the UK you don't see Madden on shelves, although you can buy it from places like amazon.co.uk and so on.

JoeTheBlow @ Oct 8th 2008 4:20AM

If Madden was on the PSN for a much-reduced price i'd pick it up, then re-learn how to play the sport. Otherwise i can't be bothered.

Thats the thing about footy, not many rules, just boot the ball into the net.
Apart from the offside rule, but you can turn that off.

Vcize @ Oct 8th 2008 10:30AM

Is the NFL even on TV in Europe?

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 8th 2008 11:32AM

@Vcize

Yeah, but it's not primetime or anything. Mostly digital TV channels at like 2am, although the Superbowl usually makes it onto one of our five main channels (again, after midnight).

I don't really follow sport anyway, but pretty much nobody here follows american football.

Maverick Saturn @ Oct 8th 2008 1:27AM

The new madden? Hasn't fifa always been our answer to madden in UK?

We do love our footy :S

KarlW @ Oct 8th 2008 1:35AM

I still don't like FIFA. It's way too bloated. Things like '250 new features!' makes me think they just add things to look like progress, but aren't trying.

It also takes too long to play a game. Friend pops in. "Fancy a game?". Load up the PS3, skip through each of the intro movies, press X at the autosave warning (why does every game do this?!), then press start (again. why?). Then quit the ronaldinho thing, select the teams, wait, quit the ronaldinho thing again. Skip the commentators. Play. That takes about 10 minutes. Far too long.

There aren't any adaptive difficult rates, either. You can trash every team 10-0 and it wouldn't notice you're playing at a low difficulty and adjust opposition difficulty slightly. You can also use the same move a million times a match without the opponents catching on. That said, I doubt you could get anywhere near that, as every FIFA game has a different control system and no training modes. Every game has a new interface for taking free-kicks, and none of them are explained at any great length.

Ethan @ Oct 8th 2008 4:49AM

We've also been morons for the past ten years thanks.

FlamingEffigy @ Oct 8th 2008 5:39AM

I couldnt agree with you more. Idiot chavs trading in their old copy for the new one every single god damn year...just one more reason to have them all executed.

Sam406 @ Oct 8th 2008 6:52AM

My brother is a soccer for FIFA

http://www.instantrimshot.com/

theCardinal @ Oct 8th 2008 8:00AM

Umm... FIFA has always been the Madden of the UK.

RC @ Oct 8th 2008 8:13AM

This is why 3rd partys aim their games at the PS3 and 360. No matter how big the Wii install base gets it won't sell their games. Just Nintendo 1st party and 3rd party shovel ware.

Mr Khan @ Oct 8th 2008 8:43AM

First off, it could be a case similar to Madden, in that the target market is primarily in the PS360 market

Secondly, again, it's a case similar to Madden, an isolated one. Wii version is never top-selling, but it's certainly never mentioned as "Part of the other 4% of sales with PC & DS" that's just... extremely pathetic

Again: Force Unleashed Wii pulled very respectable numbers in its opening week, as did Lego Batman.

All this proves is that Wii isn't the target market for sports sims, which is sad, because PES08 Wii was superior to all the other versions, though i can't speak for FIFA09

Maverick Saturn @ Oct 8th 2008 8:44AM

I don't like playing Footy on Wii ¬_¬

I've gotten too used to the regular controls of PS3 and 360 for my football needs.

Dante G @ Oct 8th 2008 11:31AM

I can't stand to play FIFA... and I like soccer (the real football).

In my experience people just buy the new version because of the roster update. FIFA sells more than PES because you get to choose real teams from all over the world. It's an easy choice for regular people to buy the game in which their favorite team is available. Even though PES has better gameplay.

Dante G @ Oct 8th 2008 11:32AM

Dante G @ Oct 8th 2008 11:34AM

damned comment system >:-|

Eh @ Oct 8th 2008 12:32PM

"Even though PES has better gameplay."

Have you not played PES 2008? Its horrible. You must only have a PS2 or never have actually played FIFA 08 on current gen. Its the most pathetic attempt at a "next gen" game Ive ever seen, and not just because of the graphics, but because everything about the gameplay is the same as its always been which is unacceptable.