EA's Record $8 Billion Year Built by Devs It Laid Off

$8.026 billion. That's what EA pulled in during fiscal year 2026, a 9 percent jump year-over-year and a new company record. The engine behind that number? Battlefield 6, which EA CEO Andrew Wilson called the launch of "our iconic Battlefield franchise" in the company's earnings release. It was, per EA, "the best performing Battlefield" in a fiscal year, setting "numerous" franchise records.

The people who built that game were rewarded with layoffs.

In March, EA cut an undisclosed number of developers across its Battlefield Studios teams. The company's statement at the time was corporate boilerplate about "select changes" to "better align our teams around what matters most to our community." That was roughly two months ago. Now EA is parading the financial results those same developers delivered, and I don't know how Wilson's quote about "talented teams" reads as anything other than insulting to the people who no longer have desks.

The Numbers Behind the Praise

Beyond Battlefield, EA's record year was padded by its usual revenue pillars. EA Sports FC 26, FC Online, and FC Mobile all saw "mid-single-digits" growth in net bookings. Apex Legends delivered its "strongest net bookings quarter of the fiscal year" in Q4. Net revenue for FY26 hit $7.5 billion, up 1 percent year-over-year. These are strong numbers across the board, and they tell a clear story: EA's portfolio is performing.

But the Battlefield situation is where the cruelty sits. This wasn't a game that underperformed and got its team downsized as a consequence. Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game of 2025. It carried EA's entire fiscal year. And the studio response was to cut the people who made it happen, then cite "disciplined execution" in an earnings report two months later. As journalist Ethan Gach highlighted, there's a grim irony in celebrating record results while the developers responsible are updating their LinkedIn profiles.

No earnings call accompanied the report because EA's pending acquisition by a consortium that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund means the company is in regulatory limbo. Wilson noted "constructive engagement with regulators" and said the parties are "working diligently" to close the deal, which would take EA private and saddle it with $20 billion in debt. Multiple analysts have previously warned that a post-buyout EA will likely double down on live services and sports games while cutting costs elsewhere, which makes those Battlefield layoffs look less like a one-off realignment and more like a preview.

Meanwhile, Battlefield 6 itself is pushing forward without some of the people who shipped it. Season 3 launches May 12 with revamped maps from Battlefield 3 and 4, new weapons, and a Ranked queue for the free-to-play REDSEC mode. All of it free. Steam concurrent numbers have dropped well below launch peaks, and the new season is clearly an attempt to rebuild momentum after the community fallout from Season 2's delay and the layoff news.

EA's fiscal year is a case study in a problem the games industry still hasn't solved: commercial success does not protect the people who create it. A game can be the best-selling title of the year, break every internal record, and carry a publisher to its highest-ever revenue, and the developers can still lose their jobs before the first anniversary. Wilson's press release thanks "talented teams." Some of those teams are gone. EA's $8 billion year is real, and so are the layoffs that followed it.