College Football 25 Reportedly Pulls in as Many as 700,000 Players in First Day of Early Access Period [IGN]

College Football 25 might not be officially released until Friday, but those who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition or MVP Bundle began hitting the sticks as early as 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET on Monday. Despite the early access review period underway, EA Sports’s long-awaited return to College Football video games is pulling some solid early numbers.

Now there’s over 700,000 people online on College Football 25 pic.twitter.com/r1q5XRtd8E

— Bordeaux (@bordeauxyoutube) July 16, 2024

Several users on X/Twitter were reporting how many players were online right now playing College Football 25. YouTuber and X/Twitter user Bordeaux posted an image on his official account that over 700,000 people were currently playing College Football 25, an impressive number considering that only accounts for people who bought the Deluxe Edition and MVP due to the three days early access pre-order incentives.

Of course, this number only accounts for players connected to their Xbox Live or PSN account and does not include offline players. This uptick in player count days before its worldwide release also caused College Football 25 servers to struggle to keep up with the high player count last night.

More interestingly, X/Twitter user @Welfare_JBP posted a screenshot from Walmart that over 1,000 Xbox Series S consoles were bought at Walmart yesterday. At the time of writing, Walmart’s listing for the 1TB all-black Series S model shows the same banner: over 1,000 units were bought yesterday, and over 200 people have the console in their shopping cart. The Xbox Series S is one of three platforms College Football 25 is available on as EA Sports opted not to release it on either PC or the eighth-generation consoles.

Yeeeah EA College Football is absolutely for sure, positively a console mover.

Xbox Series S is never touching +1000 today at Walmart otherwise, outside a price cut. Jumped from +100 yesterday to +1000 today. pic.twitter.com/IGRxxnlxSA

— John Welfare (@Welfare_JBP) July 16, 2024

Walmart did not immediately respond to IGN’s request for comment.

More interestingly, Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana, posted on his X/Twitter account that it appeared big MLB The Show content creators were streaming College Football 25. The more interesting part of that note is that this happened on the same day that the MLB’s Home Run Derby was held and “right after” San Diego Studio released a massive content update for MLB The Show 24.

Phew. Seems like every big MLB The Show streamer is running College Football, on the eve of the Home Run Derby and right after the year’s biggest MLB The Show content drop.

Oof.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) July 15, 2024

College Football 25 will get a worldwide release on July 19. For more information, check out the deep dives for Dynasty mode, Road to Glory, and College Ultimate Team. And while you wait for IGN’s official review to drop, check out our hands-on preview that explains why College Football 25 is more than just a Madden reskin.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.