Star Wars Battlefront beats expectations with more than 13 million units shipped

Electronic Arts announced yesterday its earnings for the fiscal 2016 third quarter, revealing better than expected results.

EA noted non-GAAP net revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, was $1.803 billion, $28 million above guidance and 26 percent higher than the prior year's earnings. The publisher/developer attributed the results to Star Wars Battlefront and Need for Speed.

"Star Wars Battlefront surpassed our full fiscal year guidance of 13 million units, which includes over 1 million units bundled with consoles. On a constant currency basis, revenue would have been up 35% year on year," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed. The company did not reveal how many copies of Battlefront were actually sold-through to consumers, however.

Battlefront also helped drive full game PC and console downloads to the $195 million generated. "Star Wars Battlefront was our largest digital launch ever, although it did lean more towards physical copies over the full quarter as holiday gift-giving became the dominant driver of purchases," EA noted. In November, EA announced Battlefront broke download records for the company, becomign its "largest digital launch of all time."

Despite the impressive sales, Star Wars Battlefront has been slammed by critics and fans alike, mostly for its shallow gameplay and casual approach. EA recently outlined plans for Battlefront's DLC, detailing the free and paid content coming over the next few months.