Chances are, your video game collection probably has at least one EA Sports title in it.
EA Sports is one of the most iconic brands in the video gaming world. Whether it’s the latest Madden NFL, FIFA, or NHL, or the MVP Baseball and NCAA Football games of yesteryear, EA Sports has been by far the longest-running and most active brand in publishing major sports titles. The empire is entering its third decade in the sports business and still going strong. EA’s foray into sports started with the subtle release of Earl Weaver Baseball for Microsoft and Apple computers in 1987, followed by John Madden Football in 1988 (you might have heard of that one).
EA hasn’t looked back since: Since the late-80s, the company has released dozens of games across just about every professional sport, from arena football to cricket to rugby to sports people actually watch. Most of EA Sports’ products have become the gold standard for sports video games, in part because of exclusive league licensing deals, but also because EA makes such a solid product. Madden NFL, FIFA, and NHL are essentially without competition in their respective sports, and continue to sell millions of copies each year.
This comes despite the fact, that, let’s be real: Sports video games hardly change from year to year. It’s obviously easy to tell the difference from Madden 08 to Madden 18, but it’d be hard to spot many major changes from Madden 17 to Madden 18, save for the rosters. Yet people keep buying the games, in large part because they are fantastically realistic simulations of their favorite sports.
Even though sports video games may not change, there are still a few that stand out as all time great video games, and a majority of these have been made by EA. So let’s take a walk down memory lane and look back at the 10 best EA Sports games ever released.