Since EA acquired Codemasters in a deal worth a whopping $1.2 billion, the F1 game series has gone from strength to strength in terms of sales. F1 2021’s sales were “well above expectations” according to EA’s Andrew Wilson, with sales “nearly doubling year over year during the holiday period.”
Since launching in late June, F1 22 is proving to be another best-seller for EA.
F1 22 was July’s most downloaded game on PlayStation
After debuting at number one in the UK physical game charts, F1 22 was the most downloaded PS5 and PS4 game on the European PlayStation store in July, as revealed in a PlayStation Blog post charting July’s most downloaded games.
It overtook recent releases like the charming cat platformer Stray and horror game The Quarry. July wasn’t a great month for driving game downloads - Gran Turismo 7 is the only other racer in Europe’s top 20 most downloaded PS5 games at number 16.
Thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive, Formula 1 has exploded in popularity over the last few years and now has a larger following in the US than before. While F1 22 didn’t finish in pole position in the US and Canada, it was the fourth most downloaded PS5 game. It was less popular on PS4, however, ranking at number 18.
F1 22 cross-play coming soon
Since launching in late June, F1 22 has received a raft of updates. Portugal’s Portimao circuit recently returned to F1 22, while update 1.08 finally fixed the well-publicised AI straight-line speed issues.
One of the most requested features is also coming to F1 22 later this month: cross-play multiplayer. This allows players can race online across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC – even if their friends own the game on a different platform.
Ahead of the full launch, EA has been running multiple F1 22 cross-play trials. The last trial ended yesterday, 14 August. EA confirmed F1 22’s cross-play multiplayer update will roll out at the end of August, so we should find out the date soon.