Less than one week on from FIFA 22's release day and its players have already competed in more than 460 million matches.
FIFA 22 launched last week starting a new chapter in the long-running football sim series. It also appears to have quickly eclipsed the launch of the rebranded eFootball 24 hours earlier. The free-to-play game became Steam's lowest-rated game ever just hours after it became available. No such trouble for FIFA 22 which shot straight to the top of the boxed chart in the UK.
Unsurprising considering some of the numbers EA Sports has been boasting less than a week on from FIFA 22's official launch. According to a press release issued by the publisher, FIFA 22's players have already competed in 460 million matches. That's somewhere in the region of 900 matches kicking off every second.
The same release also reveals FIFA 22 has also already welcomed 9.1 million players, and 7.6 million of them have started to piece together their Ultimate Teams for the new year. The introduction of preview packs clearly hasn't deterred many, if any people from being a part of FUT. The feature, which has been carried over from FIFA 21, allows players to look inside of packs before buying them. If they opt out then the contents of that pack won't change for 24 hours.
Aside from reeling off some very big and impressive numbers regarding FIFA 22's early success, EA Sports also mentions the possibility of a name change. FIFA has been called FIFA since its inception in 1994 but that could all change as soon as next year. The release reads that EA is reviewing FIFA's naming rights, which could well mean the game is called something entirely different starting in 2022.
Some of the other numbers included in the release give you an idea of just how big an undertaking putting together a game like FIFA really is. 100 stadiums, 700 clubs, and more than 17,000 athletes are included in FIFA 22. You would think FIFA will do all that it can to make sure the games still bear its name going forward, but perhaps EA Sports is keen to take things in an all-new direction.