Electronic Arts is the top publisher of triple-A sports games on consoles, but today it is continuing its quest to hold that title on mobile as well.
EA Sports has released UFC Mobile on iOS and Android today worldwide. You can get the mixed martial-arts game for both your smartphone and your tablet for free, and it features in-app purchases that will enable you to power up your fighter faster. This is the latest sports franchise that EA has released for mobile in an effort to capture a piece of a market that research firm NewZoo predicts could hit $30 billion this year.
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— Peter Moore (@PeterMooreLFC) April 21, 2015
EA now has an NFL, FIFA, PGA, and UFC games available on mobile. These free games enable the company to reach a much larger audience than with the traditional $60 releases on console. That’s not only because of the price difference but because so many more people have iOS and Android devices than Xboxes and PlayStations.
These mobile games also enable EA to find an audience in emerging markets like Russia or Brazil, where mixed martial arts is popular but console gaming is rarer. The publisher is likely paying a lot of money for the exclusive rights to make UFC games, and this mobile game is one way for it to maximizing a return on that investment.
Beyond trying to grow its UFC player base, this game is also representative of EA’s continued shift to all free-to-play games on mobile. Last year, after several seasons of premium-priced Madden and FIFA games on smartphones, EA introduced the first ever free versions of those games on iOS and Android. This was a big change for the company, but it paid off as FIFA Ultimate Team is one of the top-100 highest-grossing apps in over 56 countries, and Madden Mobile reached the No. 11 spot on the overall top-grossing app chart in the United States on the day of the Super Bowl.
EA Sports UFC Mobile now has the chance to do something similar for that sport for the publisher.