I agree a challenger brand needs to advertise more, but SI seem to mostly rely on their current consumer base and a little paid activity to propel the game to the top (basically 90% organic sales). When challenger brands are being so competitive, it’s no wonder SI are losing market share in the area by not investing in acquisition of new customers. For example, I type in “Football” into the App Store and the first thing I see is a Top Eleven ad. I cannot recall SI doing this with FM Mobile.
Likewise, relying on your core fan base is fine if the product matches expectations. However, casual players are not satisfied with an outdated UX and match engine vs competitors (3D is always one of the biggest feature asks), and for those that do play PC the game isn’t in depth enough as the feature set has stagnated in recent years. When FMH2006 came out it was based on CM2001. If we take that as the game was 5 years behind the PC version, the progression of the game has now drifted to be probably 15-20 years behind. Therefore, it’s failing to meet the modern expectations of PC players.
Coupled with the very little mentions SI give it throughout the year to expose more PC players to the series, it doesn’t take a genius to work out why sales are down.