EA earnings leave the Madden maker looking for a restart

If it’s anything like some of its players, Electronic Arts is about 10 seconds away from slamming controllers onto coffee tables.

The Madden maker reported its latest earnings Tuesday and announced quarterly net bookings of $2.22 billion. That’s a drop of more than 6% from the same quarter last year. EA’s full-year net bookings reached $7.2 billion, a 6% drop from the year prior. EA forecast net bookings of between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion for the current quarter.

EA said it’s “confident in a return to growth in fiscal 2026” and also announced a $1 billion accelerated share buyback. Investors seem to like the company’s confidence that its own stock is a buy here, and shares are up slightly in the aftermarket.

Last month, EA’s stock plunged 17% in a day after it cut its annual sales forecast, slashing its outlook for net bookings from between $7.5 billion and $7.8 billion to as low as $7 billion. BofA Securities downgraded the stock and slashed its price target from $170 to $130. The company blamed the underperformance of “Dragon Age” (it had 50% fewer players than EA expected) and its rebranded soccer series “EA Sports FC 25” (formerly FIFA), which was poorly reviewed.

Though “EA Sports FC 25” reached No. 8 on last year’s top-selling games, any drop in its sales has a knock-on effect to EA’s “live services” segment, which includes downloadable content and subscriptions. EA’s soccer game made up the majority of the $150 million decline in its live services last year (down to about $5.4 billion).

EA’s smaller “American Football” biz (which includes Madden and “College Football 25”) didn’t see the same level of decline: weekly active users grew by double digits on the quarter and it’s on pace to pass $1 billion in net bookings on the fiscal year.