Battlefield V didn’t meet sales expectations despite 7.3 million sales

In their Q3 2018 report, Electronic Arts confirmed that Battlefield V sold over 7.3 million copies during the quarter, noting that these sales were below the company’s expectations for the title, which sat at 8.3 million sales. 

In their earnings call, EA representatives stated that the company’s prioritisation of the game’s single-player component over its planned Firestorm Battle Royale mode likely hurt the game’s sales. This draws a parallel to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, which removed the game’s traditional single-player campaign in favour of adding the game’s Blackout Battle Royale game mode.  

Moving forward EA plans to promote further sales of Battlefield V with the introduction of Firestorm in March and the addition of other “live services” content over the coming weeks. 

It could be argued that the game’s delay from October 2018 to November 2018 also harmed the game’s performance, giving players less time in the quarter to purchase the game. The post-launch release of the game’s “The Last Tiger” single player War Story also hampered the game’s retail performance at launch, making one of the game’s best war stories unavailable to gamers upon the game’s release.