Could EA Sports Lose The F1 License After 2025?

In 2008, Codemasters acquired the license to create the official F1 games, which was carried over to EA Sports after it acquired the studio. However, the long-standing partnership could end after the 2025 season.

An entire generation of racing fans has grown up with Codemasters' F1 games: The studio acquired the license in 2008 after Sony had held it exclusively from 2003 to 2006, and made its debut with 2009's Wii exclusive F1 2009. The following year's F1 2010 is generally regarded as the proper start to the series of F1 games by Codemasters.

Since then, the studio has created the official games of the Formula One World Championship on consoles and PC, as well as a few spin-offs like F1 Clash. In 2021, publisher EA Sports acquired Codemasters, and with it, the license to the games. It had been extended long-term until 2025 only in 2019, with the option for an extension over two further years if "certain performance thresholds" were achieved.

F1 24 Sales - Reason For Concern?​

And this is where F1 24 might be reason for concern. While the specifics of these performance criteria are not known, it is not unreasonable to think that they are tied to the game's financial performance - so how well it sells. Rumors are swirling in Facebook groups and on Reddit already.

The game's player numbers on Steam are known, however - and, as vginsights.com reports, the sales on the PC game platform are far behind those of its predecessor. While F1 23 is listed to have sold about 503.000 units, F1 24 only has 134.000 copies sold on Steam as of September 12, 2024, according to vginsights.

Of course, F1 23 has been out for longer and has been on sale as well, but this discrepancy can also be found in the player numbers. F1 23's peak in its launch month of June 2023 was at 13.261 players on Steam, with its all-time peak occurring in November that year at 14.432. F1 24, meanwhile, peaked at 6.190 players on Steam when it launched in May 2024, which still stands as its all-time peak.

But even F1 23 saw a downward trend already compared to its predecessors, as can be seen in the table below. This does not factor in the EA App and the console market, of course, which is important for the F1 games as well

Sources: vginsights.com / steamcharts.com
*2015 marked the first time EGO Engine 4.0 was used for an F1 title as the series made the jump to Xbox One & PlayStation 4, then the latest generation of consoles. EGO 4.0 has been used in every F1 main series game since.
**F1 2015 was free for Steam players to get and keep on April 27 and 28, 2018, causing this unusually high peak.

However, certain trends can be observed when looking at the numbers going back to F1 2019, when the current license agreement was extended. While the game slots in between F1 23 and F1 24 with its numbers, its successors pulverized them as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the Drive To Survive Netflix series drew in countless new fans.

Interestingly, F1 22, the first F1 title with direct EA Sports involvement - the publisher became an EA subsidiary only in February 2021, when development of F1 2021 was in its late stages already - saw a significant decrease in sales on Steam, but not players on the platform. Still, from then on, a downward trend can be observed.

F1 24 will likely still increase its sales numbers, as it has not been part of events like the 2024 Steam Summer Sale yet and the holidays usually also mean a rise in video game sales. But with the comparatively slow start, there might be reason for concern regarding the aforementioned performance goals.

F1 24 In EA Sports' Top 3​

Expecting the peaks of 2020-2021 to last would have been unrealistic as well, but the series has lost traction in the last few years quite considerably, judging from the available numbers. Mixed reviews for the 2023 and 2024 editions likely did not help, and neither did the handling debate prior to the release of F1 24 - many who played the preview version of the game voiced their criticism of the handling model, which prompted EA Sports and Codemasters to release a handling update roughly two weeks after F1 24's launch.

It is worth noting, however, that F1 24 still was one of the three main revenue-driving games for EA Sports in Q2 of 2024 alongside EA Sports FC 24 and EA Sorts Madden NFL 24, with the three franchises amounting to a full game net revenue of $250 million. With this in mind, it would seem likely that EA Sports would want to keep the F1 game series under its own umbrella.

Could this mean we will see an outstandingly exciting F1 25? Maybe - but the decision to extend the license would likely have to be made before the release of next year's game already.

One thing is certain, though: If EA Sports and Codemasters do lose the F1 license after 2025, an era will come to an end. What started with F1 2009 or F1 2010, depending on who you ask, would come to a close after a whopping 17 years - that has to be a fair bit of nostalgia for many F1 fans and racing gamers.

And then, the question of who picks up the license would arise.

What would you like to see in the F1 game series' future? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our forums!