https://www.gamespot.com/articles/battlefield-5-fails-to-meet-sales-targets-and-ea-e/1100-6464832/
Electronic Arts announced earnings results for the all-important holiday season, and it wasn't the kind of performance the company wanted to see. Amid a "tumultuous" year, EA said the company overall did not perform up to expectations. One title that failed to hit targets was the World War II shooter Battlefield 5.
The game sold a massive 7.3 million units in the time between launch in November and the end of the year, but this was 1 million short of what EA had projected. As for why the game struggled, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the marketing campaign failed to capture the attention of players. The campaign lacked a "creative center," the company said, though it shared no other details.
Wilson added that the game's delay from October to November hurt Battlefield 5 because it meant that the game was going up against titles already discounted for the holiday season. Not only that, but Battlefield 5 struggled because of "unprecedented competition," Wilson said. He mentioned Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Red Dead Redemption 2as titles that ate away at Battlefield 5's sales to some degree.
Not only that, but Wilson suggested that EA's decision to prioritise Battlefield 5's single-player over the new battle royale mode, Firestorm, hurt Battlefield 5's sales. Firestorm is launching in March, and it won't be the first battle royale game from EA, as it just recently launched Apex Legends from Titanfall studio Respawn Entertainment.