Do the cover athletes matter to game sales?
Bill Shea, senior sports business writer: If the cover athlete matters, by now it’s only a marginal effect on sales. The game, thanks to play mechanics and licensing, is one of the most successful in industry history, with sales of more than 130 million (EA doesn’t disclose specific numbers). For EA Sports, only its FIFA game has outsold it (300 million units) because of soccer’s global popularity.
Madden has become an iconic title with an enormous fanbase that now spans several generations of players and console systems since EA launched it in 1988 in with former Oakland Raiders coach and longtime TV play-by-play personality John Madden (for the Apple II and Commodore 64 computer systems!).
The NFL and its player union will be paid at least $1.6 billion for an extension of the Madden contract through 2026, according to Sportico.
Are concerns about the "Madden curse" dead?
Shea: For those who buy into the mysticism of the game’s cover choice faring poorly the following season, there is plenty of history of injuries and declining performance after they’ve appeared on the box. But that’s a factor of NFL players enduring a brutal sport that grinds down bodies.
The curse started with Garrison Hearst, who missed two seasons with a foot injury. In more recent years, Troy Polamalu and Peyton Hillis had injuries and performance troubles after their cover years.
Barry Sanders walked away from the game entirely not long after being named the Madden 2000 cover choice. Rob Gronkowski was the last player to have real trouble in his cover year, appearing in just eight games in 2016 — but still winning a Super Bowl ring.
Madden himself appeared on the cover from the inaugural 1988 MS-DOS version of the game through 1999.
(Photo courtesy of EA Sports)
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Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes share Madden 2022 cover - The Athletic
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