EA Sports College Football 25 sold 2.2m $100 copies with early access
An additional 600,000 people played the game through subscription service EA Play
EA Sports College Football 25 sold over 2 million copies of its premium edition, which offered access to the game three days ahead of launch.
The publisher announced on Friday that 2.2 million players had gained early access to the game. As noted by IGN, the only way to gain this access was to buy the deluxe edition on console, which retailed at $99.99 compared to the $69.99 standard edition.
In addition to the 2.2 million players in early access, the game also saw 600,000 people play the game early through subscription service EA Play.
According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, EA Sports College Football was at No.3 in the US for daily active users on Xbox Series X|S, and No.4 on PS5.
"[It] looks like EA Sports College Football 25 may indeed be the mass market breakout hit this console generation really needs right now," Piscatella wrote.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter was also surprised with the result, saying that this level of engagement has outdone what previous college football games used to do before the series entered a hiatus.
Pachter said Wedbush Morgan is doubling its sales estimate for the game from 1.5 million units to 3.2 million units as a result.
EA Sports College Football 25 is also the first time college athletes have been paid for their likeness to appear in-game, with EA offering $600 per year to over 11,000 players.
Athletes were previously prohibited from being paid for these appearances under NCAA rules, which was reversed in 2019 by a law passed in California.