Electronic Arts (EA), the publisher behind EA Sports FC, Battlefield, and The Sims, has agreed to be acquired in a historic $55 billion deal: the acquisition is led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), alongside Affinity Partners and Silver Lake. With EA now going private, it could have a brand-new future ahead of it in livestreaming.
At this valuation, the takeover marks the largest private equity buyout in history and further underscores Saudi Arabia’s aggressive push into the global video games industry. JPMorgan contributed $20 billion in financing, while the remaining amount came through PIF’s cash reserves and existing equity stakes. This deal not only reshapes the gaming landscape but also highlights the Kingdom’s growing influence in esports and interactive entertainment.
Electronic Arts is one of the most iconic names in the gaming industry, with a long-standing history rooted in the early ‘80s. The company has been at the forefront of the industry for decades, and its portfolio spans numerous blockbuster franchises. However, the publisher that employs over 14,000 worldwide has suffered consistent downturns in livestreaming viewership in recent years, something Streams Charts explores in our year-on-year viewership data for EA games in livestreaming.
Viewership statistics of Electronic Arts games in livestreaming, 2023-2025
2023 was the last year EA enjoyed over 1 billion Hours Watched (HW) across the livestreaming industry for their games. The earlier years of the 2020s saw the title enjoy even higher viewership, reaching close to 1.5 billion HW in 2021. The livestreaming viewership for the gaming publisher spans their flagship franchises, such as EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and others, as well as popular stand-alone titles like Apex Legends. On top of their usual franchise titles, EA also published It Takes Two in 2021, a game that found particular success in livestreaming thanks to its cooperative nature.
EA’s watch time for the current year in livestreaming stands at 636.6M Hours Watched. Based on the data making up the first three quarters of the year, a rough estimation for the year-end is just below 850M HW. At any rate, it seems unlikely that EA will manage to meaningfully increase its viewership compared to last year, continuing the downward trend for the publisher.
Although viewership has been decreasing year-on-year for EA, the company is still one of gaming’s most prominent publishers in the industry; with hundreds of millions of hours of watch time, they still rank within the top 10 most-watched publishers in livestreaming. With their new private deal, EA will be hoping to develop stronger releases and maintain their industry-leading presence in gaming. In livestreaming, EA could well once again enter the top 5 publishers across the globe with this new support.
Electronic Arts’ sale to their investors is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2027. Until then, EA will continue to be one of the most prevalent publishers in livestreaming and hopefully bring good tidings for the video game company.
