EA Sports announces release of College Football 26

EA Sports has announced it will bring back the College Football franchise for another year after the launch of College Football 25 was a major commercial hit. The gaming monster announced the news on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.

It comes after the franchise relaunched after about a decade of dormancy due to issues pertaining to player and program licensing. But NIL reform helped, in part, to clear the way for the franchise’s return.

And oh how successful it was.

Within two weeks of the game’s release, EA Sports College Football 25 had already done $500 million in sales. In December, Circana video game sales data from November showed that the game had become the best-selling sports game ever released on the US market.

Fans clearly enjoyed the chance to captain their favorite school, playing in any number of the different modes the game offered. And now EA Sports will have another year of College Football data to sort through, which should only help the video game maker improve the offerings going forward.

A brief history of the franchise

The original EA college football video game franchise ran from 1998 until 2013. Moving from the Bill Walsh College Football moniker to NCAA Football, the annual game was eventually discontinued.

Lawsuits emerged, most notably former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and 19 others’ decision to sue the NCAA, arguing the organization violated United States antitrust laws by not allowing athletes to make a share of the revenues generated from the use of their NIL in broadcasts and video games.

Now the game is back and thriving more than a decade since it was halted.

“EA delivered a strong start to FY25, beating net bookings guidance as we continue to execute across our business,” EA Sports CEO Andrew Wilson said in an earnings report. “Our focus on delivering bigger, bolder, and more connected experiences for our players has never been sharper and is illustrated by the record-breaking launch of EA SPORTS College Football 25 as we head into another historic Q2 sports season at EA.”

Now athletes are being compensated for having their name, image and likeness included in the game. More than 14,000 college football players opted in last year, pushing EA past its goal of 85 players per roster. Developers created the game to allow for updates to rosters throughout the season.

All athletes who are in the game received $600 plus a copy of the game, typically valued at $70.

On3’s Pete Nakos also contributed to this report.