Anthem remains one of the biggest and most high-profile failures in gaming in recent years, but while that’s been abundantly clear where its critical reception is concerned, details on its commercial performance have been less clear, owing to the fact that EA has never shared sales numbers for the looter shooter. Now, however, some information may have emerged on that front.
As spotted by Twitter user @bogorad222, the LinkedIn profile of ex-EA employee Alexandre Scriabine – who was at the company for nearly 11 years before his departure in 2021, at which point he was the director of global social media engagement – mentions that Anthem sold 2 million units in its first week, before going on to achieve 5 million lifetime sales (screenshot below).
While that may seem like a respectable number in its own right, it’s worth noting that EA had projected 5-6 million sales for the game by March 31, 2019 alone. Then again, the fact that Anthem’s sales failed to meet EA’s expectations isn’t exactly news at this point.
Less than a year after Anthem’s launch, BioWare announced plans of overhauling the game, undertaking a project it dubbed Anthem Next. However, plans for said overhaul were officially scrapped a year later.