FIFA and Battlefield are EA's most profitable franchises

EA has revealed that its digital revenue has grown by 40 percent in its second fiscal quarter since the same period last year, thanks in large part to the content downloads offered for FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13, and Battlefield 3.

This week, the publisher posted its preliminary financial results for the second fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2012, in which EA president Frank Gibeau highlighted the company's strong digital growth and pointed to FIFA and Battlefield as EA's most profitable franchises.

"On the strength of our digital extensions, FIFA and Battlefield are the two biggest revenue events in our company's history," Gibeau said. "Both are well on their way to becoming billion dollar annual franchises."

The publisher also praised the performance of its sports titles, with EA CFO Blake Jorgensen revealing that the company is forecasting an annual growth of at least 25 percent with net revenues expected to reach approximately $4 billion by March 31, 2013.

According to the report, FIFA 13 and Madden NFL 13 debuted as the two top-selling titles in September in the West. In its first four weeks, FIFA 13 sold 7.4 million units, excluding mobile downloads, a number that EA said makes the title "the biggest sports launch of all time." FIFA's digital revenue also generated over $115 million in the first half of fiscal 2013, including FIFA Online 2 and FIFA World Class Soccer.

EA's Battlefield 3 Premium service has sold over 2 million subscriptions to date, according to the publisher, and in the mobile space, The Simpsons: Tapped Out has reportedly become the top-grossing iOS game for the past four weeks, logging 2.8 million daily active users.

Other parts of the report revealed that EA's games and services for mobile have generated a 60 percent year-over-year increase in digital net revenue, while EA's Origin platform has registered over 30 million users, including 13 million mobile users. EA also revealed that Origin has signed agreements with 71 independent developers.