It’s safe to say that EA Sports’ College Football 25 was a huge success.

Circana CEO Mat Piscatella announced Wednesday that the game, which officially launched on July 19, “debuted as the best-selling game of 2024 so far and was the primary driver of both content and hardware growth on console platforms.”

He also noted that sales of College Football 25 in its first month alone were more than three times the total sales of NCAA Football 07, the best-selling college football game of all time up to that point.

Few video games in recent history have been as highly anticipated as the latest college football game, as it was the latest installment of a game that hadn’t been released since NCAA Football 14.

Fans waited a decade to play the game and responded by buying the game in droves.

This year’s version brought more than just updated graphics.

Since EA Sports last released the game, name, image and likeness linking capabilities have been implemented across college sports, meaning that in this year’s version, players had the option to use current players with their actual names.

This was never the case in previous titles, as players had to download team rosters or play with generic players and names.

College Football 25 delivered real players that could match the pageantry, traditions, and legendary stadiums that largely distinguish college football from the NFL. Add in the crowd cheers, campus views, fight songs, and more, and it’s no wonder the game sold so well.

The release timing in the middle of summer was probably also an advantage, as it gave the football-hungry public something to pass the time until autumn.

Fall is almost here and the college football season begins Saturday with the Week 0 showdowns. The ACC battle between Florida State and Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland, is the highlight of the opening schedule and much of the rest of the country begins the 2024 season the following week.

It all leads to the first College Football Playoff with twelve teams.

Well, the first ever 12-team playoff on the real field. Fans of the EA Sports game have surely played 12-team playoffs in the virtual world over the past month.