Electronic Arts (EA): A look at the challenges that cropped up in Q3 2025

Shares of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) were up over 4% on Wednesday. The stock has dropped 11% over the past one month. The video game company faced a number of challenges in the third quarter of 2025 which impacted its performance and led it to lower its outlook for the full year. EA expects its business to gain traction in fiscal year 2026 as it continues to tackle these headwinds and revamp its portfolio.

Q3 numbers

Electronic Arts saw its revenues decline and earnings grow in the third quarter of 2025. Revenues decreased 3% year-over-year to $1.88 billion. Earnings grew 4% to $1.11 per share compared to the year-ago quarter.

Business performance

EA’s net bookings for Q3 2025 declined 6% YoY to $2.21 billion. Full game bookings saw a 3% drop while bookings for live services and other fell 8% versus last year. The company witnessed lower-than-expected engagement for some of its franchises, which impacted its business performance.  

Its new game Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed during the quarter, engaging approx. 1.5 million players, which was around 50% below expectations, reflecting the heavy competition in the single-player RPG market.

Secondly, after two consecutive fiscal years of double-digit growth in net bookings, EA’s Global Football franchise witnessed a mid-single-digit decline YoY in the third quarter of 2025. The softness in HD was partly offset by growth in FC Mobile. This softness was driven by slower acquisition and lower engagement levels.

Softer acquisition led to lower-than-expected full game sales of EA SPORTS FC 25. While early acquisitions were strong, post-launch acquisitions slowed down as players stayed engaged on older versions of the game. Lower-than-expected engagement levels also contributed to the underperformance.

However, since its gameplay update last month, the company has seen a pickup in acquisition trends and net bookings, which provide encouragement for long-term growth in Global Football.

Outlook

Electronic Arts revised its outlook for the full year of 2025 to include lower contributions from Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and lower bookings from Global Football. The company anticipates a low double digit decline in Global Football franchise net bookings for the fourth quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, its American Football business remains on track to surpass $1 billion in net bookings for FY2025. EA expects net bookings for FY2025 to be $7.00-7.15 billion, down 4-6% YoY. It expects revenues of $7.25-7.40 billion and EPS of $3.90-4.25 for the year.

In Q4 2025, net bookings are expected to be $1.44-1.59 billion, down 13% to down 4% YoY, driven mainly by declines in Global Football and Apex Legends, partly offset by the release of Split Fiction. Revenues are expected to be $1.68-1.83 billion and EPS is expected to be $0.65-1.00 in Q4.