It has been confirmed via a 10K-Filing by EA to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that CEO Andrew Wilson has earned $38.6 million in the fiscal year 2026. This payout comes after a year of strong performances from EA's biggest franchises, advancements in AI technology, and waves of layoffs that affect teams working on Battlefield and Skate. It has also happened amid the moment in which EA is preparing to be taken private through a major buyout deal backed by outside investors.
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Why Andrew Wilson's Pay Went Up
EA's annual financial filing shows that Andrew Wilson's compensation rose sharply because the company hit several goals tied to its biggest games. Battlefield 6 launched last October to strong reviews. EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) met its player and retention targets, and Skate reached its early-access milestones. EA has also recently pushed for more use of generative AI within its studio's development cycles, forming new partnerships with external AI companies and setting internal AI adoption targets.
All of this has been counted as a strategic success, leading to Wilson receiving a $28 million stock award on top of his already substantial $1.3 million annual salary. In addition to the stock award, Wilson was also granted $6.5 million in bonus compensation. This comes amid layoffs and uncertainty about the future among EA's studios.
As noted by Chris Kerr at Game Developer, these earnings represent a significant increase over his $30.5 million in the 2025 fiscal year and are over $10 million more than Wilson's earnings in 2024. The compensation on top of base pay is worth noting, as in 2025 it was recommended that Wilson use private air travel for all business AND personal trips - how very Swift!
Layoffs Across EA's Studios
Despite the strong performance of its major franchises, EA made major workforce reductions earlier this year. Teams at Full Circle (The studio behind Skate) and parts of the Battlefield team were affected. These cuts happened while EA was celebrating major milestone achievements for both series, which has left both developers and players concerned about the future.
Back in September 2025, we reported on Game File's interview with concerned EA employees. One employee stated:
I’m nervous about what this means in terms of workforce once the deal is closed, as layoffs usually follow those type of acquisitions.
These concerns are in addition to those over the future owners of Electronic Arts, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which employees of EA have stated they do not believe hold similar values or beliefs as the investors.
Even successful franchises aren't fully shielded from cost-cutting decisions, and the company is continuing to reshape how its studios operate.
Massive Pay Increase Before Buyout
EA is currently in the middle of a major buyout that would take the company private. The investor group includes the aforementioned Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, the latter headed by Son-in-Law to President Trump. EA believe that the move will make the company more stable amid financially difficult times, but also means less public transparency once the deal is done.
For players, this matters as EA retain full control over The Sims studio Maxis. Once the shift to private ownership ends, the decisions over workforce, budgets, and studio priorities will all be in the hands of the new investors behind the deal.
What are your thoughts on Andrew Wilson's exorbitant pay? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to Sims Community for all the latest on Electronic Arts!
9 Comments
And for that kind of salary for one scumbag… how many salaries would there be for people who are actually useful and do what’s most important, namely games!!!
And all this in the face of cuts and transformation… disgusting and pathetic!
Business performance compensation. The fact that a company will pay out MILLIONS for performance to a CEO and lay off workers, the ones who put in the work, at the same time, is vomit-inducing. But that’s the corporate culture. Pay the CEOs these asinine amounts while the peasants go hungry or lose their jobs entirely. And it won’t stop after they fully go private.
And once they go private, they will no longer have to post financial information, and they will no longer have to file with the SEC.
Reply to MsMoBear
well, i hate to say it, but that’s exactly how capitalism works
Reply to nigel
That is how unethical capitalism works.
In corporate finance, the principle is that companies exist to generate shareholder wealth. This is done by creating value for consumers. Shareholder wealth generation and value creation go hand in hand.
The unethical part of capitalism is that shareholder wealth is being prioritized over value creation, and profit is being prioritized over ethics. The reason why we had the Dodd-Frank Act and have the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2022 is because of unethical behavior and greed. Capitalism can be a good system, so long as regulation is present and ethics are part of the culture. The problem is regulation is imploding (Trump succeeded in repealing the remaining bits and pieces of Dodd-Frank), and ethics are nowhere to be seen in corporate America.
But this isn’t necessarily a capitalism problem, it’s a private equity problem. More and more companies are being bought up by private equity, and what tends to happen is value goes down the toilet, and the only shareholders profiting are the private investors. The amount of well-known brands now privately owned is growing, and it isn’t suppose to be that way.
What’s happening right now is the darker part of late-stage capitalism, where ethics get tossed to the side in favor of pure profit generation, and the product, the employees, and the consumers ultimately suffer because of it.
Reply to MsMoBear
Ugh I wish I could edit comments. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002* not 2022.
Love seeing the downvotes, but it doesn’t change that private equity is the biggest problem we are facing right now. Panera, Sonic, PetSmart, Michael’s, Dunkin, Hot Topic, Pizza Hut, Barnes & Noble, and now EA, all are owned by private equity. The current state of late-stage capitalism we are experiencing right now isn’t helping, which is why I’m happy to see more enthusiasm toward a more socialist economic system (because yes, you can in fact understand capitalism’s role and still want to see better).
Here we can observe the wild real life Landgraab known as “Andrew Wilson” in his natural habitat doing what occurs naturally to his species. Much like Homo Sapiens need for food and social bonds as sustenance, Homo Landgraabiens have no need for such “primitive” things, and instead depend on a thin, green substance that originates from the bark of trees, that we now know today, as money, of which they absorb a necessary nutrient known as Vitamin G, or Vitamin Greedium.
Time will tell how the Homo Landgraabiens will evolve.
Reply to AzukiMochi
I forgot to correct “much like” to “unlike” Homo Sapiens.
Why does that ”man” look like he is AI-generated?
So he got more money for them facial procedures that makes him look uncanny. I’m sure he feels bonita but baby those eyes are the eyes of a serial killer with botox and brow gel.
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