Last year, FIFA experienced a huge decrease in revenue. However, it managed to earn almost $160 million from licensing. It is the first time in history when a major part of the association’s revenue came from video games.
International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) reported $266.5 million in revenue for 2020, according to SportBusiness. It’s a huge decrease compared to $765.7 million from the previous year.
The drop in revenue was mainly due to the lack of tournaments combined with other lasting consequences of COVID-19. However, the pandemic had a positive impact on FIFA’s work with video game publishers.
In 2020, the organization earned $158.9 million from brand licensing, which is 24 percent above the initial prognosis. It managed to reach the historic numbers because people started playing more during the lockdown. The major part of this income, of course, came from Electronic Arts’ FIFA series.
It’s also worth noting that the deal between FIFA and EA expires in 2022, so FIFA will be able to renegotiate the terms of the agreement right after. Despite the impact of COVID-19, the organization still expects to reach its total revenue target of $6.44 billion for the 2019-2022 cycle.