FIFA 2012 Sales Are In, With A Twist

EA has announced the opening sales figures for FIFA 2012, and they’re hugely impressive.

[drop2]In lieu of this year’s Pro Evolution Soccer (which releases soon) EA’s had a free run on goal, and has shifted 3.2 million copies globally in just a few days.

What is most surprising, though, is that sales of the iPhone version of the game are nearly 880,000, making up a fair percentage of what we can safely assume are otherwise mostly PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

It’s worth mentioning that EA are basing the figures on ‘internal estimates’ but they’re unlikely to be too far out.

It’s the biggest sports game ever and – according to the press releases – the biggest game launch of 2011 to date, trumping Gears of War 3’s claim earlier in the week.

On October 1st alone, FIFA players registered more than eight million sessions of FIFA.

EA have also released the top five supported teams based on player preferences:

  • Manchester United — 241,767 supporters
  • FC Barcelona — 144,709 supporters
  • Arsenal — 131,305 supporters
  • Real Madrid — 126,806 supporters
  • Liverpool — 118,182 supporters

I’m hardly the world’s biggest football fan, but those are some impressive figures indeed.

We’ll have our reviews of both FIFA and PES 2012 along soon.

37 Comments

  1. Beasting game! Such a huge leap in quality in comparison to Fifa 11

    • That’s what I’ve heard. Happy for football fans. =)

    • Nonsense. It’s the same game. It’s been repackaged a little, but it’s still the same game. After buying the last five FIFA games, I have had enough of this sort of talk. Sure, I enjoyed the games, but it grows old. And sure, UT was nice. For a while. They make no actual game changing improvements. For the last edition, they advertised better control of players “360”. This year it’s “precision dribbling” .
      As said before, I used to always get them except this year. I am definitely not a Pes Fanboy, Pes is even far behind FIFA! Although it is making strides to improve.
      If you can name ways in which they have made a leap in quality, by all means go for it – I’ll try my best to shoot then down! ;)
      (rant over)

      • They redid the entire engine?
        What more do you need?
        Have you even played it, with the new features on?
        You said you got them until this year. Well, this year it’s MASSIVE.

      • oops. “shoot then down” . meant to be shoot them down, as in your return comment ;)
        That is why a) you don’t use an i device when tired, and b) proof-read ;)

      • “have you even played it” Well of course I have.. I would not come on here laying into it without actually witnessing the game.

        When you say re did the entire engine, what is it exactly you actually notice? Is it the sometimes bizarre player interactions, or is it the heavier feel to the ball? Hardly innovations are they? Also, tactical defending can not be seen as a game changer. Changing the controls in a game is not much.

      • Maybe you could write to Mr. Sepp Blatter tell him your bored and see if he will change the rules for you.

      • @colmshan1990:
        They did NOT re-do the entire engine, this is not something they have claimed either. All they’ve done basically is ADD things to the game, specifically the Impact Engine, which is actually a little strange in practice I’ve seen. Weird motions, overall.

        Career mode is also the joke it’s been for ages; unrealistic player development, etc. Yes, the new camera is impressive, but the same arcadey style unique to FIFA is still inherent.

      • Revamping the whole defensive system not enough?
        It may not have made as many strides as some of the previous FIFAs, but it has still made those strides.

      • @BrendanCalls – I’m not bored with football, I’m bored of buying the same game every year. As metamorph said, career mode is still poor. I cannot even remember any improvement at all for career mode.
        @ C_S15 – As I said. All they have done is alter the controls. It is still essentially the same defence system. You still hold x to get to them, but now just have to click another button to tackle.

      • I know your not bored with football, I was just giving you a bit of a ribbing ;-)
        So as your protesting so vehemently against this years title, why dont you apply for a job in EA Vancouver and show them how to do it properly

      • And if you mistime that tackle, the player you’re jockeying is past you. That’s a huge step up over “Hold X and O and watch 2 players abuse the shit out of the guy on the ball with no skill involved.”
        It’s a huge change that requires you to defend with some skill and not just hold 1/2 buttons.

      • Completly agree stingraz, not much has changed at all from 11 to 12 the online is still the same old stuff, finesse goals, through balls and chip through balls to pacey little players and crosses to a lanky 6 foot 8 giant. if you do actually make a tackle the opposition almost always pick up the ball which basically makes it pointless to try and tackle. The referee AI is shocking, the passes you make still go in a completely different direction to which direction you move the analogue stick. the offline opposition always does the same thing those stupid little shimmys, it hardly ever puts a cross in instead it’ll try and dribble along the goal line and pass . i bought it for both ps3 and 360 on launch day from GAME, £86 it cost me i didn’t get triple points on my GAME card cos GAME’s systems were down i think i’m going to be taking them back for a full refund because EA and the FIFA series now are just the same as the premier league players, earning lots of money for doing pretty much F**K ALL.

      • Wow are you actually oblivious to what theyve done?
        Coming from PEs 2011 they’ve made big differences to the game over FIFA 11 that changes the way you play the game. if you havent noticed it then you havent put enough/no time into realising whats changed and refined.

  2. Jebus that’s a lot of games, and a lot of money!! I’m holding out for a price drop, too many games at the minute!

  3. Glory glory man united!

  4. I thought city would be in the top 5 supporters. I struggle to find an online game against someone who doesn’t go them so unless I just end up unlucky. The only team I go online is united. Don’t bother with others. I’m a united fan so I stick with them whatever mode.

  5. Well done EA. Went to get GOWV2 and SOTC/ICO. There were soooo many peeps buying FIFA 12.

  6. This game more than any other exposes the BS of reviews. TSA gets massive credit for not reviewing until it’s been thoroughly played, something only a tiny minority of the media have the integrity or balls to do. Most reviews read like EA wrote them themselves! ‘Career mode is great this year, you can do this, do that…’ the truth is it’s actually been plagued by game-ending bugs at worst and bad glitches at best. Never mentioned by mainstream reviews though.

    • The truth?
      I haven’t spotted a single bug, and none of the people I’ve talked to have either.
      Maybe it is happening for some, but it’s not on each and every copy of the game anyway.

      • Really? I wish I could play it like you and your mates. Go the the EA forums and see if there are any issues…

    • There’s always going to be issues on the forums.
      Show me a single game forum WITHOUT an issue, if you’re going to use it as evidence that most of the FIFA 12 games have major game-ending bugs.

  7. Doesn’t surprise me, the game has done nothing but improve on what was already outstanding. I’m fairly surprised Arsenal are still so highly supported after the incredibly poor start to the season we’ve had, but I’m pleased. Nothing new with Barcelona being up there, Leo Messi is literally invincible on FIFA now. Which is fair, really.

  8. Arsenal third in a league table?
    Nofi, have you been drinking? :P

    • I posted news. About football. I can do no more. ;)

    • That is a bit weird, isn’t it? How the hell do they have more than Real Madrid?!

  9. I like FIFA games but can’t see the point of buying it every year tho?

    • Same (but I don’t like football that much), it’s like CoD, pretty good every now and then, but for me at least they don’t change enough stuff to warrant it being bought every time.. Yearly release games annoy me a bit. The best games always take ages, Team Ico, Valve style etc..

    • same here so I buy them every second year so I didnt buy Fifa 11 so I will probably soon buy this game :)

  10. Pfft Arsenal bad? I losted 5-0, no fair… I beat them 8-2 weeks ago and I… I lost.

    Good game, getting it on PS3 to play with friends I hope, and is Ultimate Team on it yet> That mode alone solds it for me.

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