EA switched off Anthem on January 12, 2026. The game was built online-only, so every copy stopped working that day, with no offline mode offered. Five months later the European Commission declined to require publishers to keep games playable at all. Here are the verified game server shutdown statistics for 2026: EA’s published closure calendar, the Concord record, and what 1,294,188 signatures actually achieved.
Key Game Server Shutdown Statistics 2026
EA Game Server Shutdown Statistics For 2026
EA publishes its closure calendar in advance, which makes it the clearest publisher-level record available. EA states it retires online services once the remaining audience falls below roughly 1% of peak online players measured across all EA titles.
The register mixes outcomes. Anthem and EA SPORTS FC Tactical stop working entirely. NHL 22 and NHL 23 keep their offline modes and lose only online features.
| Title | Platforms | Shutdown date |
|---|---|---|
| Anthem | Xbox One, PS4, EA App | January 12, 2026 |
| NBA Live 19 | Xbox One, PS4 | January 30, 2026 |
| Dragon Age: Inquisition | PlayStation 3 | April 28, 2026 |
| Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare | PlayStation 3 | April 28, 2026 |
| EA SPORTS FC Tactical | Apple, Google, Facebook | May 7, 2026 |
| Battlefield Hardline | Xbox One, PS4 | June 22, 2026 |
| Plants vs. Zombies HD | Apple | June 24, 2026 |
| Madden NFL 23 | Xbox One, Xbox S|X, PS4, PS5, EA App, Steam | July 13, 2026 |
| Apex Legends | Nintendo Switch | August 4, 2026 |
| NHL 22 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S | August 31, 2026 |
| NHL 23 | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S | August 31, 2026 |
| Grid Legends | Xbox One, Xbox X|S, PS4, PS5 | September 11, 2026 |
Source: Electronic Arts, Online Services Shutdown register (entries A–Q), accessed July 2026
Console generation turnover drives part of this. Two of the twelve dates above cover PlayStation 3 titles, and both land on the same day. Mobile is the other pressure point, which is worth reading alongside mobile game spending patterns and the current Marvel Snap player count.
DiRT Rally 2.0 shows a softer version. EA is sunsetting the game’s website on July 8, 2026, removing the Racenet Clubs feature while other online functions stay live.
How Fast Can A Game Server Shutdown Happen?
Concord set the record for a full-priced release. Sony published the shutdown notice on September 3, 2024, and the servers went offline beginning September 6, fourteen days after the August 23 launch on PS5 and PC.
Sony halted sales immediately and refunded every buyer on PS5 and PC, with physical purchasers directed back to retailers. Firewalk Studios was closed afterwards. On Steam, Concord peaked at 697 concurrent players, a figure that covers the PC version only and excludes PS5 entirely, so it is not a total audience count. For context on what healthy figures look like, compare Destiny 2 concurrent player data.
What Happened To Concord After The Shutdown
In November 2025 a small group of developers rebuilt Concord’s backend through reverse engineering and ran full matches on custom servers. Sony responded with copyright claims that removed the demonstration videos from YouTube. The servers themselves stayed up.
Stop Killing Games Petition Statistics And The EU Decision
The campaign started after Ubisoft took The Crew offline in 2024 and became the fourteenth valid European Citizens’ Initiative. It cleared national thresholds in 24 member states.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 26 January 2026 | Submitted with 1,294,188 verified statements of support |
| 23 February 2026 | Organisers met EVP Henna Virkkunen and Commissioner Michael McGrath |
| 16 April 2026 | Public hearing at the European Parliament |
| 21 May 2026 | European Parliament plenary debate |
| 16 June 2026 | Commission adopted its Communication in reply |
Source: European Citizens’ Initiative register, Stop Destroying Videogames, July 2026
The Commission’s answer went against the campaign. It concluded it cannot propose a legal obligation to keep video games playable once they stop being provided commercially, pointing to existing consumer law as the safeguard.
Two commitments came instead. The Commission will open talks with the games industry and consumer representatives by the end of 2026 on a code of conduct covering how games are retired, and it will work with consumer organisations to publicise existing rights.
Stop Killing Games Statistics In The UK
The UK ran a separate track. The petition titled “Prohibit publishers irrevocably disabling video games they have already sold” closed on 14 July 2025 with 189,887 signatures.
The government replied in February 2025, before the petition closed, stating it had no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games. MPs debated the petition on 3 November 2025.
Source: UK Parliament Petitions, petition 702074, closed 14 July 2025
What Server Shutdowns Leave Behind
Volunteers for the campaign surveyed over 700 games requiring an internet connection and published the results in May 2025. More than 68% of the surveyed titles were already dead or in the process of being shut down.
The split among titles that survived discontinuation is the sharper number. Fans preserved 110 of them. Developers salvaged 16.
Source: Stop Killing Games volunteer survey of online-only titles, May 2025
Outcomes depend entirely on how a game was built. MultiVersus lost online play on 30 May 2025 but kept local and single-player modes. Anthem kept nothing. That gap is why modding community activity and speedrunning participation now matter to preservation, since both depend on old builds staying runnable.
Demand for older titles has not gone anywhere. Browser-based retro game libraries and emulation keep decades-old releases playable precisely because they never needed a publisher’s server. More figures sit in our gaming statistics archive.
FAQ
What was the fastest game server shutdown?
Concord. Sony took it offline beginning September 6, 2024, fourteen days after its August 23 launch on PS5 and PC. Every buyer was refunded, and Firewalk Studios closed afterwards.
Did the Stop Killing Games petition succeed?
It cleared the EU threshold with 1,294,188 verified statements of support but did not produce a law. On June 16, 2026 the Commission said it cannot require publishers to keep games playable, offering an industry code of conduct instead.
Can games still be played after their servers close?
Sometimes. MultiVersus kept offline and local modes after 30 May 2025, while Anthem became fully unplayable. Among surveyed titles still playable after discontinuation, fans preserved 110 versus 16 kept alive by developers.
Did Stop Killing Games publish its results on Reddit?
Yes. Organisers posted campaign updates on Reddit, including a country-level breakdown of verified signatures after the 26 January 2026 submission. The official totals appear on the European Citizens’ Initiative register.
Where can players check which games shut down next?
EA publishes dated closures on its own Online Services Shutdown register, usually months ahead. Reddit gaming communities and the Stop Killing Games wiki track closures across other publishers, though neither is an official source.
Sources:
https://www.ea.com/legal/service-updates/a-h
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/stop-destroying-videogames_en
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074
https://blog.playstation.com/2024/09/03/an-important-update-on-concord/