Operation Sports News Post

Press Row Podcast - Is NBA 2K Bigger Than Madden?

04:17 PM - February 20, 2015 by Steve_OS

It’s the 122nd episode of the Press Row Podcast, featuring a near-complete panel diving into two significant topics. Up first, the crew examines how Diamond Dynasty seems to (so far, at least) be a significant focus for MLB 15 The Show. Included in this segment, Samit Sarkar describes his initial impressions of The Show from a media event he attended. Up next, it’s the question that set off a raging debate this week – is NBA 2K bigger than Madden? Owen Good and Kat Bailey have written compelling pieces about it (spurred by an interview with Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick), and they, along with the rest of the team, have an intense discussion about whether or not this is the case.

Joining us this week:

Bryan Wiedey, PastaPadre (@pastapadre)
Owen Good, Polygon (@owengood)
Kat Bailey, US Gamer (@The_Katbot)
Chris Sanner, Operation Sports (@ChrisSnr)
Samit Sarkar, Polygon (@samitsarkar)
And your host, Richard Grisham, GamesRadar/OXM/@GAMER (@richgrisham)

Send us your feedback! We love to hear from you and can’t wait to read your stuff on the air in a future episode. Do it one of these ways:

1) Follow the show on Twitter at @PressRowPodcast and send us some Tweets while you’re there
2) Email the show at [email protected]
3) Respond to this post

Also, the Press Row Podcast is now available on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/...ow/id563624090) and Stitcher Radio (http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/oper...ss-row-podcast), so subscribe to it and rate it too!

Enjoy the show!

Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes

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Member Comments

# 1 tsbmolina @ 02/20/15 09:10 PM

I wrote a blog about this a year and a half ago http://www.operationsports.com/tsbmo...-sports-genre/ No one would have ever imagined the day this would happen yet here we are. Madden has been dethroned.

# 2 tbook24 @ 02/20/15 10:08 PM

no 2k isn't bigger. there are some that still prefer live. only game bigger than madden in the sports gaming world is FIFA. football is still king over basketball.

# 3 thatruth2015 @ 02/20/15 10:25 PM

Yeah this broadcast was dumb. I'm almost positive half the panel hasn't played 2k15 especially post patch 3. 2k has gotten worse in gameplay, online lag, canimations, online connectivity, since 2k11. It has legacy issue since post 2k11 such as terrible rebound logic, skate board defense, charge cheese, shotclock cheese, comback cheese, etc. Post patch 3 the devs tried to fix defense by ******ing offensive movement and increasing input delay. These commentary folks here on OS are not reading all the feedback here nor on YouTube, Facebook, nor Amazon..nba2k15 post patch 3 will mark the downfall of this title. They have indeed rested on their laurels

# 4 the veteran @ 02/21/15 12:09 AM

Great job guys the Podcast sounds great, what equipment do you guys use?

# 5 thatruth2015 @ 02/21/15 01:00 AM

What? "Podcasts sounds great, what equipment do you use"! WTF?! This it's Operation Sports not a radio shack forum. This site it's dedicated to sports gaming maan..

# 6 spidertour02 @ 02/21/15 01:26 AM

Is NBA 2K bigger than Madden? Of course not. One look at the yearly sales charts quickly proves it.

For 2014, Madden 15 was the second-highest selling game -- only Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare outsold it. Yes, Madden outsold Destiny, Super Smash Bros., Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, and every other big-name challenger. For comparison, NBA 2K15 placed #7 on the chart -- very good, obviously, but not even close to Madden.

# 7 jyoung @ 02/21/15 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidertour02


	Is NBA 2K bigger than Madden? Of course not. One look at the yearly sales charts quickly proves it. For 2014, Madden 15 was the second-highest selling game -- only Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare outsold it. Yes, Madden outsold Destiny, Super Smash Bros., Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, and every other big-name challenger. For comparison, NBA 2K15 placed #7 on the chart -- very good, obviously, but not even close to Madden.

The charts you're referring to (NPD) only track North American retail sales from a limited selection of major retail chains. NPD's charts don't account for digital downloads, microtransaction revenue, or any copies sold outside North America.

Plus NPD just ranks games 1 through 10, without making their actual sales numbers or revenue numbers public. The gap between seeds could be huge, or it could be small. NPD never shares that info.

I wouldn't place too much value on NPD charts, these days. Games are making money in a lot more places around the world, and in a lot more ways than they did in the 1980s - 1990s.

# 8 Cabish @ 02/21/15 08:41 AM

I think so, personally I have never liked madden...I played joe Montana over madden,then I stopped playing football games,gave blitz,game day and couple games a shot..until nfl2k came out & was the perfect match for my hands and eyes..I played that nfl2k like religion and never even wondered if their was a game name madden....ever since the licenseing drama I stopped playing football games again....I honestly think nba2k gets more recognition than madden as a sports games and I'm glad for the Visual concepts team..its taken over as the more recognizable brand,when you walk in a GameStop you realize it:

# 9 rkocjay @ 02/21/15 10:30 AM

Madden is bigger because its by far the more popular sport and gets the most hype and criticized. But i believe that nba2k is a better game maybe because basketball is easier to make

# 10 tsbmolina @ 02/21/15 12:53 PM

To the lady in the podcast of course you hear Madden referenced more among NFL players then you do NBA 2K among NBA players. It's a 52 player roster compared to NBA's 12 player roster and the NFL has two more teams! Come on, that's 1664 NFL player's compared to NBA's 360 players. Of course there are going to be more players referencing Madden in that league compared to NBA players referencing NBA 2K. What a horrible argument.

# 11 tsbmolina @ 02/21/15 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkocjay


	Madden is bigger because its by far the more popular sport and gets the most hype and criticized. But i believe that nba2k is a better game maybe because basketball is easier to make

If NBA was easier to make then football, EA one of the most money strapped top tier developers in the world wouldn't be failing so miserably with NBA Live for the past 5 years!

# 12 kjcheezhead @ 02/21/15 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidertour02


	Is NBA 2K bigger than Madden? Of course not. One look at the yearly sales charts quickly proves it. For 2014, Madden 15 was the second-highest selling game -- only Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare outsold it. Yes, Madden outsold Destiny, Super Smash Bros., Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, and every other big-name challenger. For comparison, NBA 2K15 placed #7 on the chart -- very good, obviously, but not even close to Madden.

It's not all about sales, just like the podcast explains. Metacritic scores of the games and league popularity have to be taken into account. According to a Harris poll, 36% of Americans say NFL football is their favorite league and only 6% say the NBA is.

http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/story?story...14&src=desktop

By those numbers, Madden should be outselling the NBA almost 6-1, but it's not. Also, like they said, NBA 2k has a competitor in EA live and Madden has none. Madden out performs in sales because people love football. I think Madden has slipped to fourth behind FIFA, NBA2K, and The Show in actual sports game quality. It was dethroned when the ps2 became obsolete.

# 13 cmehustle @ 02/21/15 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsbmolina


	To the lady in the podcast of course you hear Madden referenced more among NFL players then you do NBA 2K among NBA players. It's a 52 player roster compared to NBA's 12 player roster and the NFL has two more teams! Come on, that's 1664 NFL player's compared to NBA's 360 players. Of course there are going to be more players referencing Madden in that league compared to NBA players referencing NBA 2K. What a horrible argument.

I agree with your point, but in the nfl counting practice squad members there are 61 players per 32 teams =1952 players. Im not sure where the 12 comes from for the NBA, maybe what used to be 12 active players? Nowadays teams have 13 active and can have up to 15 on there rosters (2 inactive) = 450. Again though I do understand the point you were trying to make.

# 14 Cabish @ 02/21/15 06:35 PM

Among casual gamers,madden is still a household name,but I have realized now people first competitive game they call for when they realize a system in your living room is nba2k,they love it ,they say 2k is fire.it used to be madden..and if madden did have nlf2k to compete with they would have been in big trouble right now.!..because nfl2k made a lot of people past the die hard take notice and realize the work visual concepts has been putting in with their football game since the inception.

# 15 Radja @ 02/21/15 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidertour02


	Is NBA 2K bigger than Madden? Of course not. One look at the yearly sales charts quickly proves it. For 2014, Madden 15 was the second-highest selling game -- only Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare outsold it. Yes, Madden outsold Destiny, Super Smash Bros., Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, and every other big-name challenger. For comparison, NBA 2K15 placed #7 on the chart -- very good, obviously, but not even close to Madden.

as far as game sales, madden 15 has two months on nba. the nba doesn't get popular until after dec and nba 2k14 stayed in the top 10 most of all last year.

nba 2k is going to be competing with fifas popularity very soon as they continue to add world basketball leagues from every country. there are so many dlc micro transaction options for commentary and league additions it is scary.

just imaging if they add chinese league and commentary charge a couple bucks for these dlc and league add ons to a nation of 1 billion... it will be like printing their own money.

# 16 TheDukeBlueSean @ 02/21/15 09:49 PM

No. Madden will always be bigger than NBA2K because of EA. EA makes Madden made the size it. If Madden was made by a different company this would be a different answer.

# 17 cmehustle @ 02/21/15 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheDukeBlueSean


	No. Madden will always be bigger than NBA2K because of EA. EA makes Madden made the size it. If Madden was made by a different company this would be a different answer.

Does that work with Battlefield vs COD??

# 18 CyberRudy25 @ 02/22/15 01:19 PM

We should be comparing NBA2K to NBA Live. Apples to apples instead apples to oranges. Impossible to compare game when one product cough cough Madden has no compeition for Football. Anyways

# 19 bumpyface @ 02/23/15 02:22 AM

Here we go again. I'm sick of 2k getting all this praise when there are so many gamebreaking issues that plague gameplay. I play Madden and 2k and Madden doesn't have half of the gameplay problems 2k has. Also, 2k15 has by far the WORST input delay as well as online play I have ever experienced in any VIDEO GAME! THE WORST. What are we judging and making these comparisons with? I want to see how 2k16 sells. There are a lot of online gamers who are sick of the laggy online play and lack of lobbies.

# 20 thatruth2015 @ 02/23/15 07:22 PM

I agree 100 percent. Online lag and is terrible post patch 3...It makes online gameplay pointless and frustrating.

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