FIFA, Madden, NFL Ultimate Team is Making EA $650 Million Yearly

Ultimate Team, a mode in EA's yearly FIFA, NHL, and Madden games, is making the publisher around $650 million dollars a year, according to the company's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen.

Speaking during a recent interview at a business summit, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Jorgensen said this figure represented half of sales generated by digital content across all its games.

"We've been a leader in driving digital extra content for games, which really drives the profitability of this business," he said. "That extra content includes products like a Season Pass for Star Wars Battlefront, say, or map-packs for the Battlefield series, but the biggest contributor, by far, is Ultimate Team."

Ultimate Team, which was first introduced to FIFA but has since been added to EA's other sports titles, involves using gold coins to purchase packs that unlock different players. Using these, an all-star team is built and used in online multiplayer.

Although the gold coins necessary to purchase these packs can be accrued in-game, EA also offers the option to buy them with real money. $650 million per year generated through a single mode within its sports games is significant.

For context, the 20 best selling PC games on steam reportedly made a combined total of $650 million in the entirety of 2015.