EA reveals CEO pay rose to $38.6 million: up $8 million ahead of studio layoffs

Electronic Arts (EA) said in its investor filing that CEO Andrew Wilson took home about $38.6 million in fiscal 2026, roughly $8 million more than the year before. A large part of that jump came from Battlefield 6. EA said the game’s October 2025 release sold more than 7 million copies in its first three days, the biggest launch the Battlefield series has ever had, and that performance helped push up the stock awards and bonuses that made up most of Wilson’s pay package. His base salary, according to the filing, was $1.3 million.

If you follow EA, the timing stands out. The raise landed in the same stretch when the publisher was cutting staff at studios tied to Battlefield. In March 2026, EA laid off developers at DICE, Criterion Games, Ripple Effect, and Motive Studio. The company described the move as a “realignment” meant to better line teams up around community priorities.

That has brought a lot of backlash across gaming media and social media, especially since EA also said in the same investor filing that its CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio was 305:1. For people criticizing the company, Battlefield 6 produced exactly the kind of huge, record-setting success publishers chase. That’s what makes the combination of layoffs, rising executive pay, and teams losing jobs so hard to look past.

You can read the fiscal 2026 compensation details in EA’s investor filing.