EA Play Review: £35.99 a Year, 10-Hour Trials of New EA Sports Games and Pro on PC Only

EA Play is Electronic Arts’ own games subscription: a back catalogue of EA titles to download, timed trials of new releases before launch, and 10% off what you buy from EA. It is not a Netflix for games in the way Xbox Game Pass is, and it is not trying to be. For a specific kind of player, the one who buys the new EA Sports FC every September and dips into Star Wars or Battlefield between seasons, it is a cheap add-on. For everyone else it is often already paid for, tucked inside a Game Pass plan. This review covers what each tier costs in sterling, dollars and euros, how the annual plan saves money, and where EA Play fits in our gaming hub.

EA Play deal: up to 50% off with the 12-month plan

• Offer: EA Play for £35.99 a year instead of £71.88 on monthly billing, a saving of £35.89 (US$47.83 / €42.59)
• Promo Code: No Promo Code needed; the annual price is shown when you join
• Who qualifies: anyone joining EA Play on the platform of their choice; the membership works on that one platform only
• Key terms: renews automatically at the then-current annual price until cancelled; the 10-hour trials end when the time runs out; Play List games go when you stop paying

Offer detail	What you get
Promo Code	No Promo Code needed
Welcome offer	Up to 50% off with the 12-month plan: EA Play at £35.99 / US$39.99 a year instead of £71.88 / US$71.88 paid monthly
Who qualifies	Anyone joining EA Play on PC, PlayStation or Xbox; EA Play Pro is sold on PC through the EA app only; one platform per membership
Key terms	Renews automatically each month or year at the current price until cancelled; card or PayPal depending on country; access to Play List games ends with the membership
How to claim	Sign in to the EA app, or the PlayStation, Xbox, Steam or Epic store, choose EA Play, pick the 12-month option and pay

Get the EA Play offer

EA Play at a glance

• Price from: £5.99 / US$5.99 a month, or £35.99 / US$39.99 a year (EA Play)
• Top plan: EA Play Pro at £16.99 / US$16.99 a month, or £109.99 / US$119.99 a year (PC only)
• What you get: The Play List of EA games, trials of new releases (usually up to 10 hours), 10% off EA digital purchases, monthly in-game rewards
• Pro adds: select new EA games on day one, premium editions with in-game extras, a larger Pro Play List
• Platforms: PC (EA app, Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation and Xbox; Pro on PC via the EA app
• Included free with: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass
• Streaming: none of its own; games are downloaded

What EA Play is, and who owns it

EA Play belongs to Electronic Arts, the publisher behind EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, The Sims, Battlefield, Apex Legends and EA’s Star Wars games. It began on Xbox One in 2014 as EA Access, merged with the PC service Origin Access, and has been called EA Play since 2020.

There are two tiers. EA Play is the standard membership, sold on every platform. EA Play Pro is the premium tier, which gives you new EA games in full, in their deluxe editions, on launch day. EA’s own Pro page says it is available exclusively through the EA app on PC.

One rule shapes everything else: your membership applies to one platform. Join on PlayStation and the Play List, the discount and the rewards work on PlayStation only. If you play on a PS5 and a gaming laptop, you would need two memberships.

EA Play prices: every plan explained

EA last raised prices in May 2024. These are the monthly and annual figures it set for the UK and US; we have converted to euros at our exchange rate because EA prices eurozone memberships locally.

Plan	UK	US	Euro equivalent	Billed yearly saves
EA Play, monthly	£5.99	US$5.99	about €7.11
EA Play, 12 months	£35.99	US$39.99	about €42.71	50% (UK), 44% (US)
EA Play Pro, monthly	£16.99	US$16.99	about €20.16
EA Play Pro, 12 months	£109.99	US$119.99	about €130.53	46% (UK), 41% (US)

EA Play gets you The Play List, a rotating library of full EA games, plus trials of select new releases, usually up to 10 hours before launch, and 10% off EA digital purchases on your platform, including games, DLC and points packs.

EA Play Pro adds day-one access to select new EA games in premium editions, with their in-game extras, plus the larger Pro Play List and extra member rewards. In practice it is a rental of EA’s new releases.

Regional differences. UK buyers get the better annual deal: the 12-month EA Play plan halves the cost of paying monthly, against a 44% saving in the US. In Canada, EA’s own page lists EA Play at CA$7.99 a month or CA$54.99 a year, and Pro at CA$22.99 or CA$149.99. US prices are shown before sales tax; UK and European prices include VAT.

Free trial and official discounts

EA Play has no standing free trial. The trials it advertises are of games, not of the membership: members get timed access to new releases before launch, and progress carries over if you buy.

The real savings are these:

• The 12-month plan. Up to 50% off in the UK, as above.
• Game Pass. EA Play is included at no extra cost in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (£16.99 / US$22.99 / €20.99 a month) and PC Game Pass (£10.99 / US$13.99 / €12.99). If you already have either, you already have EA Play on that platform.
• Occasional EA promotions. EA ran a single-use code offer on new EA Play Pro annual plans between September and November 2025. Codes like that are issued by EA itself; ignore the “EA Play Promo Code” lists on coupon sites, which we could not match to any live offer.

A worked example: what you really pay

Take a student in Leeds who plays EA Sports FC on a PS5 and buys the new edition every autumn at around £70, plus about £30 a year in FC Points.

• Without EA Play: £70 for the game and £30 of points, so £100.
• With EA Play for a year: £35.99 for the membership. The 10% discount takes £7 off the game and £3 off the points, so £90 plus £35.99, or £125.99. The membership costs more than it saves.
• Where it pays: if the same student also plays two Play List games through the year, say Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Battlefield 2042, rather than buying them, EA Play becomes the cheaper route.

On PC, a fan of Battlefield, FC and the F1 series who would buy three new EA games at full price can get them through EA Play Pro for £109.99 a year (US$146.57 / €130.53), against roughly £210 to buy them. The catch is that you own none of them when you stop paying.

Game library highlights

The Play List varies by platform and country, and EA rotates it, so treat these as examples rather than a fixed list.

• Star Wars: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Star Wars Battlefront II were on The Play List over the 2025 holiday season.
• Shooters: Battlefield 2042 is listed on EA’s store pages. Battlefield 6 was not in the library at launch; members got 10% off instead.
• Sport: past editions of EA Sports FC, Madden NFL and F1 rotate through, while the new editions arrive as trials. In December 2025 members could try College Football 26, FC 26 and Madden NFL 26 for up to 10 hours and F1 25 for five.
• Older favourites: It Takes Two, Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have been regulars in previous years.

The Sims 4 is now free for everyone, so it is not a reason to subscribe, though members get 10% off its packs.

Streaming and connection requirements

EA Play has no cloud streaming of its own. Games are downloaded and run on your console or PC, so the only connection you need is enough to download and sign in. If you want to stream EA games, the route is Xbox Cloud Gaming through Game Pass Ultimate, which carries EA Play titles, or a cloud PC service. Our GeForce NOW review covers the bring-your-own-games approach.

Devices supported

• PC: the EA app on Windows, plus Steam and the Epic Games Store. Not available on Mac.
• PlayStation: PS4 and PS5.
• Xbox: Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
• EA Play Pro: PC only, through the EA app.

How to subscribe and cancel

1. Decide which platform you want, as the membership works on that one only.
2. On PC, open the EA app and choose EA Play or EA Play Pro; on console or Steam, find EA Play in the store.
3. Pick monthly or 12 months and pay by card or PayPal, depending on country.
4. Download games from the Play List, or trials from the Included Games section.

To cancel, turn off auto-renewal where you bought it: your EA account for the EA app, PlayStation Network or your Microsoft account on console, or Steam or Epic for those stores. On Epic, for example, cancelling before the next billing date means you are not charged again, and you keep the benefits until the period ends.

Customer service

EA support runs through help.ea.com, which has help articles and a contact page for account and billing problems. Billing for memberships bought through PlayStation, Xbox, Steam or Epic is handled by that store, not EA.

What users say

EA Play does not have a review profile of its own, so we looked at long-running coverage and EA’s own review pages. The most common theme is that value depends on habits: Tech Advisor’s long-running guide concludes that the standard tier pays off for people who play several EA games a year and works out poor value for those who play one. The 10-hour cap on trials is a frequent annoyance, because it is just long enough to get hooked. The 2024 price rise, which nearly doubled the UK annual price, drew widespread criticism. On EA’s small Trustpilot page, the handful of reviews centre on slow support and account problems rather than the subscription itself.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Cheap on the annual plan, especially in the UK
• Trials of the new EA Sports games before launch
• 10% off EA digital purchases, including points and DLC
• Sold on PC, PlayStation and Xbox
• Already included in Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass

Cons

• Membership is locked to one platform
• EA Play Pro is PC only
• The newest big releases are trials, not full games, on the standard tier
• The 2024 price rise cut the value of the annual plan
• No streaming

EA Play vs Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus and GeForce NOW

	EA Play	Xbox Game Pass	PlayStation Plus	GeForce NOW
Cheapest plan (UK)	£5.99 a month, £35.99 a year	£6.99 a month (Essential)	£7.99 a month, £59.99 a year	Free tier
What you get	EA’s back catalogue, trials, 10% off	50+ to 500+ games by tier	Online play, monthly games; catalogue on Extra	Streams games you own
Includes EA Play	Yes	Ultimate and PC Game Pass	No, sold separately	No; streams supported games you own
Day-one games	Pro only, PC	Ultimate	Some, Extra and Premium	Bring your own
Platforms	PC, PlayStation, Xbox	Xbox, PC, cloud	PlayStation	PC, Mac, TV, phone

For a PlayStation owner, EA Play is the only way to get EA’s catalogue on a subscription; see our PlayStation Plus review. On Xbox and PC, our Xbox Game Pass review explains why Ultimate usually makes a separate EA Play membership unnecessary. If you are weighing publisher subscriptions, Ubisoft+ is the closest equivalent.

EA Play FAQs

Is EA Play worth it?
On PlayStation, yes, if you play at least two EA games a year that are on The Play List. On Xbox or PC, check first whether you already have Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass, which include it.

How much is EA Play a year in the UK?
£35.99 for 12 months, against £71.88 if you pay £5.99 monthly. EA Play Pro costs £109.99 a year.

What is the difference between EA Play and EA Play Pro?
EA Play gives you the back catalogue, 10-hour trials and 10% off. Pro adds select new EA games in full, in premium editions, on launch day. Pro is PC only.

Is EA Play included in Game Pass?
Yes, in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. It is not included in the cheaper Essential or Premium plans, or in PlayStation Plus.

Can I get EA Play Pro on PS5 or Xbox?
No. EA sells Pro through the EA app on PC only.

Does EA Play work on more than one platform?
No. Your membership, discount and rewards apply only to the platform where you joined.

Is there an EA Play free trial?
Not a standing one. The trials EA advertises are 10-hour trials of new games for members. The annual plan is the main saving.

Is there an EA Play Promo Code?
No Promo Code is needed. EA occasionally issues its own single-use codes for Pro; codes on coupon sites are not official.

Do I keep my games if I cancel EA Play?
No. Play List games stop working when your membership ends, though your saves remain if you buy the game or rejoin.

Can I use EA Play while travelling?
Yes. You sign in to your account as usual abroad. For hotel Wi-Fi, a VPN protects your log-in, and a travel eSIM helps if you need data to sign in on the move.

Verdict

EA Play is a good deal for a narrow audience. If you play on PlayStation and buy EA’s sports games every year, the £35.99 annual plan gives you early trials, 10% off and a decent back catalogue for about £3 a month. On Xbox and PC, Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass already includes it, so a separate membership is wasted money. EA Play Pro is the PC player’s way to rent each year’s new EA games, and it makes sense only if you would otherwise buy two or three of them at full price.

Visit EA Play

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