Right alongside VMA-related hashtags like #CongratulationsBTS and #Gaga, calls for NFL to drop EA trended early on Monday.

This comes two days after ‘Madden NFL 21’ launched on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Apparently, the game has not improved in years, and gamers are getting increasingly fed up.

In fact, according to Sporting News, it has become almost impossible for EA Sports to sweep criticism of its annual football simulation game release under the rug, in spite of its rockstar PR team and sky-high sales.

Worst Metacritic Score

2020 might just be the year that the partnership between EA Sports and NFL, which gives the former exclusive access exclusive use of the latter’s players in their games, blow up for good.

Aside from a trending hashtag, the game broke all-time records by clinching the worst Metacritic score ever -- at 0.4/10. Again, to reiterate: this is not just the lowest rating in Madden history -- it’s the worst score in Metacritic history.

Now, more than ever, EA is facing accusations of becoming too lazy to innovate the game because of its chokehold of the market. To drive their point that ‘Madden’ games are not living up to fans’ expectations, players shared gifs showing bugs and technical issues plaguing every previous version of the games.

Long-Term Partnership

NFL dropping EA would potentially mean that franchises like NFL 2K and NFL Blitz could compete with their own simulation games.

However, this is not a likely scenario -- at least not in the near future.

The NFL and Electronic Arts are engaged in a long-term contract. The five-year deal will run through 2026, and even has an option for a sixth year, depending on sales output. 

If fans really want to express enough disgruntlement to make sure this deal will be the last, they are going to have to stop paying for Madden, because the game’s always-impressive sales have so far silenced the criticism, as far as the NFL is concerned.
Every single Madden release so far has landed on top and continues to do well all the way through the holidays. So If users truly want things to change, they’re going to have to stop settling for less.