Is the PC Community being Ignored By EA?
Every year the amount of people who want NHL on PC grows and every year its disappointment. Is the PC Community being Ignored By EA? as a person who moved fully to PC this year and as part of the PC ...
Forum Discussion
Yeah, i dont mean a cloud version. i mean a full native version like Madden or FC. This proves my point about the PC community being ignored. its a attempt to try to avoid the issue. Streaming through Xbox Cloud Gaming is not the same as having a native PC version. It introduces input lag, lower visual quality, and forces us to rely on internet stability for a game that deserves precision. This isn’t a true solution it’s a workaround. The PC gaming market has grown massively, and titles like Madden and EA FC are already on PC. Why is NHL being singled out? I’m not trying to be negative as I’m a lifelong NHL fan who just wants to support the game on the platform I now play on. If it’s truly not viable for EA to bring NHL to PC, then we deserve transparency, not sidestepping. Right now, it just feels like we’re being ignored.
EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerMadden and FC are on PC because those sports are way more popular than hockey. We would love to have a native PC version of NHL someday. At the moment, it's not worth the investment it would take to make it happen. This has been talked to death on these forums for years now. There's a lot more that needs to be done than just porting the game to PC. That's probably the easy part. Supporting it the other costly part. We need a team to handle patches, anti-cheat, support personnel, additional servers, crossplay support, etc. It's a far bigger project than most realize. Hopefully the audience grows in the future so we can invest in a PC release.
What kind of excuse is this, because it's not a popular sport, it's pointless to invest in PC and how many games are less played, but they're on PC and consoles together... 😂
, as a company EA, have a lot of money, but you can't put it on PC, it's a shame for a company like you to say the least. NHL 2004 has been played by a lot of people for years because it wasn't released on PC anymore
Just because a company is valued high doesn't mean it can just spend without thinking about the future of their profits. Shareholders are always wanting more money and they want to hear things like big profits from adding a product here or there. NHL coming to PC isn't magically gonna be a huge profit. Instead you would see console people join the PC side IF it is done right and then they need to hire more people because of all the various PC setups out there.
I mean hell I think if they do anything it would be Switch 2 but I really hope not as it would require more work on an already small team.
You keep repeating the same line — "Madden and FC are on PC because those sports are way more popular than hockey."
Let’s break that down.
Nobody questions FC’s popularity. That franchise is in a different league. But saying Madden is “way more popular than hockey” — especially in the context of PC gaming — doesn’t hold up when you look at actual data.
Take Madden NFL 26. It’s been listed on Steam since April 25, 2025. As of August 6, it has only 979 followers. That’s incredibly low for a so-called “massive franchise.”
So where is this huge NFL fanbase you keep referencing? Three months on Steam — the world’s largest PC gaming platform — and not even 1,000 followers? That’s not a sign of popularity. That’s a clear signal of underperformance.
And this isn’t new. Previous Madden titles also show underwhelming numbers on PC:
Madden NFL 21 peaked at 3,226 players
Madden NFL 22: 5,602
Madden NFL 23: 6,169
Madden NFL 24: 9,526
Madden NFL 25 dropped again to 5,917This is five years of data showing stagnation or decline. If that’s considered a success worth yearly investment, then NHL definitely deserves at least a chance.
Some will say, “Steam doesn’t show EA App numbers.” Fine — but if Madden was doing great there, EA would be publicly celebrating it. You promote FC and Apex numbers constantly. Madden? Total silence.
Now about NHL.
You’ve said porting is the easy part, but supporting it — anti-cheat, patches, servers — is the costly part. That’s fair. But you're already doing all that for Madden, which isn’t showing strong returns on PC. So why does NHL get ignored?
It’s not about cost. It’s not about risk. It’s about EA not being willing to even try.
The truth is simple: Madden’s PC run hasn’t delivered major results. NHL could easily match or surpass it if given the opportunity. But that opportunity is constantly denied — based on outdated assumptions, not facts.
The NHL community has been asking for years. You say there’s not enough demand. But how can you measure demand for something that has never existed?
Meanwhile, Madden keeps getting PC releases despite consistently weak engagement. That’s not strategic thinking. That’s a double standard.
No one’s asking for miracles. We’re just asking for equal treatment. Give NHL the same chance Madden got. Let the numbers decide.
Right now, this “no NHL on PC” logic just doesn’t make sense.
for real
Previous Madden titles also show underwhelming numbers on PC:
Madden NFL 21 peaked at 3,226 players
Madden NFL 22: 5,602
Madden NFL 23: 6,169
Madden NFL 24: 9,526
Madden NFL 25 dropped again to 5,917This AI-Generated post is hilarious. It lists terrible numbers for Madden on PC and then goes on to say:
Right now, this “no NHL on PC” logic just doesn’t make sense.
Too funny.
Tired of hearing that NHL isn’t on PC because it’s not worth the investment. The last NHL game was NHL 09 which was a PS2 port 4 years into the PS3/360 era.
it’s not a hard concept….drop the game make it current gen on-par with PS5 and Series X. And give us gm connected I’m 110% never buying another NHL game until a PC version drops. I’m done. EA is so tone def.
Sure it’s not as easy as hitting a button to drop…..but it certainly isn’t as complicated as you guys make it sound. The assets are already made….indie developers drop pc ports on way smaller scale of games.
the real problem is EA doesn’t give NHL dev team much of a budget and has cut their dev team. It’s why basic features like GM connected are still missing and why CHEL has the same intro video for the 3rd or 4th year.
The game is slowly dieing on console. I’ve spent 40 minutes qued at times for a 6v6 game of drop in. Then majority of players have moved on to PC. If EA cared at all they should atleast put out a variety of surveys to ask the playerbase and EA players of other games if they would purchase NHL on PC.
P.S. I hope y’all lose the Madden license this year!
