EA on the influence of FIFA on Football in USA

The game is growing in America, but is it thanks to FIFA?

It is a fact that in the last few years European football is seen in a far more positive light over in the United States. Football, or soccer as the Americans insist on calling it, was in fact long-considered a sport primarily for children and women, but now the whole country is waking up to how magical the beautiful game actually is.

The reasons for that are many; a greater investment and better professionals playing in the American MLS league, as well as improved performances by the national team (especially Tim Howard in this most recent World Cup). Meanwhile, it can certainly be conceivable that games have had an influence as well.

And if this is indeed the case, then it's primarily thanks to the growing interest in the the FIFA series. In Europe FIFA has always been popular, but in recent years it has become hugely popular in the US, and if you believe developer and publisher EA, it was their games that have made football popular in the country and not vice versa.

To emphasise the point, they've made a nice infographic which shows that the US is actually the country that sees the second largest number of copies of FIFA sold. We have to assume that the UK is at the top of the league. Part of the reason is surely the high population of the country, but it also shows that Americans no longer only care about American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey.

The graphic also shows that a third of American gamers have begun to follow the MLS league in reality, so it's not only digital football that they have their eyes on. The MLS league isn't quite on par with the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and the other major European leagues just yet. But it has to start somewhere...