Going into the launch of Anthem, EA had some relatively bullish, but not absurd, expectations for the gamr to sell five to six million units by the end of March. In other words, sell about five or six million copies in a month. This didn't happen though. Recently, at its earnings call, EA revealed that the controversial looter shooter did not meet these sales expectations. Unfortunately, it didn't divulge any sales numbers for the game, so we have no clue how close it came to the forecast. However, EA did divulge a few details and metrics about the game and its performance so far.

For one, players have spent a total of 150 million hours with the game since launch. That's 6,250,000 days, which is roughly 17,000 years. Further, Anthem did really well digitally, earning EA's highest digital share ever. This means more people than normal bought the game digitally compared to at retail.

That said, despite an underwhelming launch, EA says the team is focused on supporting the game and fixing its many bugs, which lines-up with what BioWare itself has said in the recent past.

What will be interesting to see is how well Anthem sells over time. Right now, word of mouth about the game is pretty bad, which certainly will hurt long-term sales. However, if BioWare can right the ship by squashing bugs, adding meaningful content, and fixing the loot system, it could surge back. After all, we've seen bigger 180s this generation. Just look at No Man's Sky at launch compared to now.

Anthem is available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Posted: May 13, 2019 3:12 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/05/12/anthem-ps4-xbox-pc-sales-ea/