2K and Visual Concepts have essentially cornered the market for basketball games. The NBA 2K series is a household name, selling tons of copies every iteration. It’s truly impressive considering Electronic Arts’ (EA) NBA Live was the go-to basketball game in the 90s up until the early 2000s. However, as the NBA 2K games became more relevant, especially with NBA 2K11, sales for NBA Live began to diminish. In a way, the infamous cancellation of NBA Elite 11 was the final nail in the coffin. EA attempted to revitalize the franchise with NBA Live 14, but after several mediocre entries, NBA Live 19 marked the end of the long-running series.
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While EA’s future with NBA games is seemingly non-existent, it’s not too late for the company to dip into a different basketball market: college basketball. Along with the NBA Live series, the company developed the NCAA March Madness games, which would become NCAA Basketball with later entries. This brought the excitement of the annual college basketball tournament to gaming every year. However, NCAA Basketball 2010 was a dud, and ultimately led to the franchise’s demise. Despite its cancellation, now may be as good a time as ever for EA to bring back its college basketball series.
Although it’s a different sport, EA has already brought back one of its college sports games. Last year, the FC and Madden makers released EA Sports College Football 25. Not only was it a critical success, garnering an average score of 83 on the review aggregate site Metacritic, but it was also a financial success for the company. Specifically, according to Circana’s November 2024 report (via GamesIndustry.biz), it is the best-selling sports game of all time and one of the top 50 best-selling video games ever.
There are a few factors that contributed to EA Sports College Football 25‘s success. Part of it is timing. Before last year’s release, there had not been a college football video game since 2013’s NCAA Football 14. So, people were itching for a new college football game. There is also a need for something different. Madden NFL games are released annually and, arguably, they have been underwhelming for a while now. Having a fresh football game was exciting enough to pull people in, whether they were college football fans or not.
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An EA Sports College Basketball game may not hit the same highs as EA Sports College Football 25. College football as a sport is more popular than college basketball, but it may still be a hit. It has been well over a decade since the last NCAA Basketball game and basketball games in general are getting a bit stale thanks to the NBA 2K franchise. Having a fresh basketball experience in gaming that is serviceable may be enough for people to jump in.
There is also the rising popularity of college basketball, which should be taken into account. This year’s March Madness saw record viewership during its first and second rounds. The first round averaged 9.1 million viewers across its available networks, up 6%, with its primetime window averaging 12.2 million viewers. That window, which was led by Arkansas and Kansas, was the most-watched first-round window in NCAA Tournament history. The second round averaged 9.4 million viewers, giving the tournament its best viewership since 1993.
It’s not only the men’s tournament that is seeing decent viewership. Women’s basketball is gaining popularity, and this year’s March Madness tournament adds to that notion. Although viewership is not hitting the same highs as last year’s tournament, it still sees great numbers compared to 2023. According to ESPN (via Yahoo Sports), the first round of the women’s tournament saw an average of 367,000 viewers across all available networks, up 43% from 2023.
This growing popularity is perfect for a possible EA Sports College Basketball game. Especially if the publisher released it near March Madness, similar to how 2K releases WWE 2K near Wrestlemania or how San Diego Studios releases MLB The Show right before the start of the baseball season. Basketball fans eager to watch the annual basketball tournament might want to play as their favorite teams within a virtualized version of the tournament leading up to the festivities.
There is a fervor surrounding college basketball and the March Madness tournament. The long absence of EA’s NCAA Basketball franchise, combined with this excitement for the sport, could be a winning formula. As long as EA can deliver a solid base game like it did with EA Sports College Football 25, there is no reason an EA Sports College Basketball game could not thrive. EA may not be ready for the NBA, but satiating fans’ anticipation for March Madness might be a slam dunk.
