EA digital revenue now a third of boxed sales

Electronic Arts’ buoyant digital business has grown by about 40 per cent year-on-year, rising to $275 million for the three months ending December 31st.

At an investor meeting on Wednesday, EA reported $740 million GAAP revenue for boxed retail. Digital revenues thus measure to 37 per cent – or about a third – of the packaged goods sales.

Retail sales for the quarter had trimmed slightly by four per cent, while GAAP mobile revenues climbed 17 per cent to $70 million.

“EA was the number one game publisher in the Apple App Store in December,” the company said.

“In December, EA’s first free-to-play mobile game, The Sims FreePlay, reached the number one position on the list of top-grossing iPad Apps.”

The publishing giant also claims that PopCap revenues are up 30 per cent since EA bought the group, based on a trailing-twelve-month basis.

Meanwhile, the digital games portal Origin generated more than $100 million in non-GAAP revenue since launch.

In social games, total monthly active users grew by about 25 per cent during the quarter to reach 52 million.

Despite the encouraging growth across digital, EA nevertheless posted a $205 million loss for the quarter, down from the third of a billion dollars it lost in the same period last year.