Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

“FY22 was a record year, with hundreds of millions of players around the world joining in our games to play, watch, and create with one another,” said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts. “With amazing games, built around powerful IP, made by incredibly talented teams, and outstanding engagement in our live services, FY23 is set to be a year of innovation and growth for Electronic Arts.”

“We finished the year with another strong quarter of revenue and profit growth, driven by our live services business which was 85% of our net bookings in Q4,” said CFO Chris Suh. “We have a strong foundation of deeply engaged players, rich IP and a resilient business model, which we will continue to invest in to deliver growth in FY23 and beyond.”

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings¹ for fiscal 2022 was $7.515 billion, up 21% year-over-year.
• Live services and other net bookings were up 17% year-over-year and represent 71% of total net bookings in fiscal 2022.
• The EA player network grew 16% year-over-year to more than 580 million unique active accounts.
• During FY22, EA SPORTS™ FIFA had more than 150 million accounts.
• FIFA Mobile just had the biggest quarter ever with new unique players surging nearly 80% year-over-year.
• Apex Legends™ Season 12 set records for the highest engagement since launch.
• It Takes Two won over 90 awards during FY22.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net cash provided by operating activities was $444 million for the quarter and $1.899 billion for the fiscal year.
• EA repurchased 2.5 million shares for $325 million during the quarter, bringing the total for the fiscal year to 9.5 million shares for $1.300 billion.
• EA paid a cash dividend of $0.17 per share during the quarter, bringing the total for the fiscal year to $193 million.

Dividend

EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.19 per share of the Company’s common stock, which represents a 12% increase from prior quarter. The dividend is payable on June 22, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 8, 2022.

The following GAAP-based financial data² and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

The following GAAP-based financial data² and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

Operating Metric

The following is a calculation of our total net bookings¹ for the periods presented:

Business Outlook as of May 10, 2022

Fiscal Year 2023 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2023

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $7.600 to $7.800 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $300 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $793 to $815 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $2.79 to $2.87.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.600 to $1.650 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 284 million for purposes of calculating fiscal year 2023 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $7.900 to $8.100 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and updated long-term tax rate of 19% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Expectations – Ending June 30, 2022

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.675 to $1.725 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $(475) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $216 to $240 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.76 to $0.85.
• The Company estimates a share count of 283 million for purposes of calculating first quarter fiscal 2023 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings¹ is expected to be approximately $1.200 to $1.250 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data² and updated long-term tax rate of 19% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

Conference Call and Supporting Documents

Electronic Arts will host a conference call on May 10, 2022 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the fiscal quarter and year ended March 31, 2022 and its outlook for the future. During the course of the call, Electronic Arts may disclose material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number (866) 324-3683 (domestic) or (509) 844-0959 (international), using the conference code 8277667 or via webcast at EA’s IR Website at http://ir.ea.com.

EA has posted a slide presentation with a financial model of EA’s historical results and guidance on EA’s IR Website. EA will also post the prepared remarks and a transcript from the conference call on EA’s IR Website.

A dial-in replay of the conference call will be available until May 24, 2022 at 855-859-2056 (domestic) or 404-537-3406 (international) using pin code 8277667. An audio webcast replay of the conference call will be available for one year on EA’s IR Website.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements set forth in this release, including the information relating to EA’s expectations under the heading “Business Outlook as of May 10, 2022” and other information regarding EA's fiscal 2023 expectations contain forward-looking statements that are subject to change. Statements including words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “plan,” “predict,” “seek,” “goal,” “will,” “may,” “likely,” “should,” “could” (and the negative of any of these terms), “future” and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and reflect management’s current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.

Some of the factors which could cause the Company’s results to differ materially from its expectations include the following: sales of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to develop and support digital products and services, including managing online security and privacy; outages of our products, services and technological infrastructure; the Company’s ability to manage expenses; the competition in the interactive entertainment industry; governmental regulations; the effectiveness of the Company’s sales and marketing programs; timely development and release of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits of, and integrate, acquisitions; the consumer demand for, and the availability of an adequate supply of console hardware units; the Company’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing platforms; the Company’s ability to develop and implement new technology; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; economic and geopolitical conditions; changes in our tax rates or tax laws; and other factors described in Part II, Item 1A of Electronic Arts’ latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as in other documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021.

These forward-looking statements are current as of May 10, 2022. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law. In addition, the preliminary financial results set forth in this release are estimates based on information currently available to Electronic Arts.

While Electronic Arts believes these estimates are meaningful, they could differ from the actual amounts that Electronic Arts ultimately reports in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these estimates prior to filing its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.

In fiscal year 2022, EA posted GAAP net revenue of approximately $7 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS™ FIFA, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Madden NFL, Need for Speed™, Titanfall™, Plants vs. Zombies™ and F1^®. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.

EA SPORTS, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Titanfall and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. STAR WARS © & TM 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. John Madden, NFL, FIFA and F1 are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

¹ Net bookings is defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically in the period. Net bookings is calculated by adding total net revenue to the change in deferred net revenue for online-enabled games.

² For more information about the nature of the GAAP-based financial data, please refer to EA’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021.

Results (in $ millions, except per share data)

The following table reports the variance of the actuals versus our guidance provided on February 1, 2022 for the three months ended March 31, 2022 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended March 31, 2021.