Mobile revenue was never expected to represent 50% of EA’s total business. It was however expected to be a bigger part than it is and at faster rate, too. That’s not to suggest revenue generated from mobile hasn’t increased. It instead suggests the staying power of EA’s console and PC gaming was stronger than expected. For mobile to get more share it needs to outpace console and/or PC revenue – a task it has yet to achieve. However, mobile outpacing PC might not be as far off as it was a few years ago. During Q3 2015, PC revenue dropped below $200 million for the first time since EA announced it was focusing on new technologies and mobile. And Last quarter PC share was down to 17%.

In 10 of the 12 financial results since the aforementioned announcement EA has recorded $100+ million in mobile revenue. Last year mobile revenue surpassed a half billion dollars.

What to expect from Q1 2016?  We anticipate revenue growth based on a 2 primary factors.

• History: Historically speaking, Q1 is EA’s strongest quarter for mobile revenue growth. The increase is likely due to the spill over from the holiday season. The last time EA’s Q1 mobile revenue didn’t experience growth was in 2010.

   

• AppTRAX: AppTRAX is Strategy Analytics’ app database that collects information on the top 200 free, paid, and grossing apps each week across 3 platforms - Google Play (in 10 countries), iPhone and iPad (in 150 countries).

   

  Through February, EA titles have appeared on the top grossing list over 19,000 times. If it maintains that pace it will outperform Q4. The count of appearances is important and so too is the average rank of the apps. The average rank of two apps, in particular, stand out – Madden NFL Mobile and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes.

   

  • The NFL Playoff Bump – EA’s mobile version of the popular Madden franchise series received a bump in popularity among top grossing apps during the NFL playoffs this year. According to AppTRAX, its average rank for the last 6 weeks of 2015 was 10.24 and for the 6 weeks leading up to Super Bowl 50 its average rank was 8.7.

     

     

  • Star Wars Bump – Like the playoff bump from Madden, EA mobile got a sizable popularity bump thanks to the Star Wars movie in December. EA released its Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes mobile game in September 2015 and according to AppTRAX its average rank among top grossing apps during Q4 was 33.91. And so far through the first two months of 2016 its average rank is up to 18.67.