Electronic Arts celebrated the success of a primetime show about the esports Madden Challenge that aired on the CW in December, saying its competitive gaming efforts with Madden and FIFA are appealing to a wider-than-expected audience.
The Madden Challenge Special, a one-hour pre-produced show that took viewers behind the scenes of the Madden NFL esports competition that’s part of the company’s broader Madden Championship Series, reached 670,000 viewers when it aired Dec. 27, making it the top-rated 2017 esports broadcast. The livestream of the Challenge finals represented the company’s largest digital viewership ever for a Madden tournament.
Then on Thursday in Minneapolis, the first Madden NFL Club Championship concluded with its final after a season-long NFL-wide competition. The winner, Hassan “GOS” Spall, who was the Washington Redskins Champion as part of an earlier extension of the series, won a $35,000 prize, Super Bowl LII tickets and a spot among 16 elite Madden players from around the world in Madden NFL Ultimate League, a 13-week tournament that will end with the Madden Bowl at the 2018 NFL Draft in April.
The company applauded events as part of the series, with the Madden NFL Club Championship’s final from the site of the Super Bowl broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes and divisional finals from the Pro Bowl broadcast on ESPNEWS. The Madden NFL Club Championship events marked ESPN’s first long-term, multi-event competitive gaming partnership.
On a call with analysts following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings results earlier this week, EA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson said Madden, and similar esports initiatives with FIFA, have helped the company reach “tens of millions of players and spectators” across traditional sports and esports.
“With FIFA and Madden, we’ve broken new ground, bringing global competition to some of the most passionate fan bases in all of sports,” he said. “Now with league partnerships, broadcast partners and sponsors on board, we’re driving even larger audiences with thrilling, high-stakes competition. We’re also creating more ways to connect with our franchises.”
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The CW’s airing of the esports competition indicates a belief that esports might be able to attain wider appeal by meshing traditional sports, such as football through Madden, with gaming competition.
Esports in general have attained strong viewership numbers over the past few years, but have struggled to appeal to the mainstream beyond their loyal fan base. As more traditional sport team owners and leagues get involved with esports, such as through the Overwatch League, NBA 2K League and Madden NFL Club Championship, stakeholders hope traditional sports fans are more incentivized to pay attention to esports competition.
On the other end of the spectrum, traditional sports team owners hope that by investing franchise dollars in esports, they’ll be able to attract some of the hard-core esports base to traditional sports.
EA beat analysts’ revenue expectations for the fiscal third quarter when it reported revenue of $1.16 billion earlier this week. The company said sales were buoyed by its live services business in sports, which includes in-game purchases and add-on content, for its FIFA and Madden franchises.
