EA CEO Andrew Wilson's 2026 Pay Gap Widens as Company Goes Private

Electronic Arts' CEO Andrew Wilson received either $39 million or $77 million in compensation during the company's 2026 fiscal year, according to new financial disclosures. The discrepancy comes from two different ways of calculating executive pay, and the gap between Wilson's earnings and those of the average EA worker has grown substantially.

Game File published its annual compensation comparison chart, which visualizes Wilson's pay against the median EA employee salary. This year's chart required 30,000 pixels to display, double the 15,000 pixels needed for last year's version. The increase reflects the widening gap between executive and worker compensation.

Most news outlets and companies use the traditional calculation method, which puts Wilson's 2026 compensation at $39 million. That includes a $1.3 million base salary, a $6.5 million cash bonus, $28.5 million in stock awards, and $2.4 million in other compensation such as private jet travel. The bonus was tied to milestones including the launch of Battlefield 6, talent retention, and a GenAI strategy.

The alternative figure of $77 million comes from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 'compensation actually paid' (CAP) metric, introduced in 2022. This method calculates stock awards based on the company's year-end stock price, which was $202 at the end of EA's fiscal year. For the first time, Wilson's CAP exceeded his traditionally reported compensation, reversing a previous trend.

The median compensation for EA workers rose from $117,000 to $127,000 during the same period. EA used a new employee for its median pay calculation in 2026, after using the same worker for several previous years.

EA's compensation reporting will likely end soon. The company was sold to private investors for $55 billion, with the deal closing this week. Stock awards are being converted to restricted cash awards tied to the $210 per share final sale price. As a private company, EA is no longer required to disclose executive compensation publicly.

This means there probably won't be an EA compensation chart for 2027, ending what Game File calls a 'brief era' of public transparency around the company's pay practices.