It's no secret that _Star Wars Battlefront II ___has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late, but what exactly has that meant for the title's actual sales? The game is down about a million from their projections, which is itself down several million from the performance of the original Battlefront.
There's some tricky math here, as EA's figures have been questioned, corrected and then questioned again. For instance, the Dow Jones Newswire report states that 9 million copies of Battlefront II had been sold thus far. Based on an update, however, it looks like that sell through might actually be close to 7 million. It's also been noted that, while lower than anticipated, sales were only off the projected 10 million mark by a million units. But if the 7 million figure is correct, that's a much bigger gap.
The difference is more noteworthy because the original Battlefront shipped about 13 million units in that same period of time. This is where some of the tricky math continues. The issue is that those 2016 figures were "shipped" for the first Battlefront while the new figures are reportedly sold. Still, you're talking about a gap of between 4 and 6 million units separating a game and its highly anticipated sequel, not to mention we're talking about a game in the gargantuan Star Wars property line that launched just a month before the latest film in the series.
EA is offering a silver lining, though, in that more of the sales from Battlefront II were digital than when compared to the original game. The difference is reportedly 28 percent for Battlefront II versus 16 percent for the original game. That's a pretty big boost, and it's especially important considering the fact that EA sees a bigger profit from direct digital sales over physical.
The big difference here is how EA handled the launch of Battlefront II and the direction development took. While the first game was knocked for being multiplayer only, with no campaign, limited modes, and no ship battles, the sequel offered all of those things and more. It was objectively a bigger, much beefier game than the original, and my review argues a much better core game because of it. However, a broken progress systems, terrible reward loops, and a huge focus on loot boxes that offered pay-to-win content led to fan outrage and a tsunami of bad press for EA. There are lawmakers around the world looking at these types of systems now because of the attention EA garnered through Battlefront II.
So no matter which of the above figures are correct, it's clear that fans voted with their dollars and have chosen not to support the Battlefront series as strongly as EA had hoped. We're not going to sit here and pretend that 7 or 9 million units sold is a small figure but, for a game like Battlefront (and considering how much it cost to make and advertise), it's clear that EA's expectations were not met.
