NHL 24 one of biggest PlayStation Plus games of 2024
By Brian Allen
This just in: people love free games. True Trophies has compiled a list of the top PlayStation Plus Essential games, with NHL 24 coming in at #9. It didn't become available until July, so that's pretty impressive. EA's F1 23 and FC 24 also made the list, with FC 24 being the most popular game. It didn't drop until May.
EA's games are powerhouses, and we'll continue to see Sony offering them as incentives to remain on PS Plus. Here's the full Top 10:
1. EA Sports FC 24 (May 2024) 2. Sifu (March 2024) 3. Evil West (January 2024) 4. Foamstars (Feb 2024) 5. Among Us (July 2024) 6. Tunic (May 2024) 7. F1 23 (March 2024) 8. Streets of Rage (June 2024) 9. EA Sports NHL 24 (July 2024) 10. Nobody Saves The World (January 2024)
EA's research has shown that after a sport's season ends, its game will generate few sales. So they join programs such as PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass. EA makes as much from Ultimate Team now as it does from selling the games themselves. Thus the free games are a Trojan Horse that can get sales from people who might never have purchased the games.
Some of the people who play these games will enjoy them, and eagerly pay for the new versions when they launch. There's a whole science to selling us these games and the modes that come with them. NHL 24 has an average rating of 71 on Metacritic, so fans weren't exactly lining up to buy it. But offer it for free, and it quickly becomes one of the 10 most downloaded games on the platform.
Put FC 24, already a wildly popular game on PlayStation Plus, and FC 24 and its billions of dollars in Ultimate Team sales gain even more traction. We should be hearing something about NHL 25 soon, I'm thinking. Last year's first trailer dropped around this time, so if it's still an October release, it's past time to get the hype train rolling.