Electronic Arts is a prime example of how important revenue from digital stores and in-game transactions are to modern gaming publishers.
The company reported its earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2016 today, and it announced that it made more than $532 million from digital revenues. That is up 10 percent year-over-year, and it accounts for more than three-quarters of the company’s total revenues for the three-month period ending June 30. Mobile, console, and PC gaming are pushing the industry to over $100 billion worldwide, and most of that comes from buying and downloading games from digital stores and in-game transactions for mobile and online.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1777378,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"B"}']For Q1 2016, EA generated $693 million in revenue, which beat its guidance of $640 million. EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen explained that the publisher owes most of that growth to what the company has done in digital.
“Seventy-seven percent of revenue came from in-game purchases, subscriptions, game downloads, and Internet services,” Jorgensen said during a conference call with investors.
Most of EA’s digital growth came from what it labels as “PC & other.” This includes its Origin game-distribution service as well as subscriptions for its live services like Star Wars: The Old Republic.
In a further breakdown of digital revenues, the company revealed that its full-game downloads and extra content business are up 18 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Downloadable game made $84 million compared to $71 million during the same period last year. DLC, however, generated $255 million, which is up from $211 million during Q1 2015. These are the healthiest sectors for EA when it comes to generating digital sales.
Mobile is relatively flat at 2 percent growth and $122 million in revenue. And only the subscription and ad-supported game business is on the decline for the company. That dropped 11 percent from $80 million to $71 million.