Madden 24: How to play Early Access ahead of launch

It’s officially Madden 24 release week, we made it! This year’s Madden 24 has an official release date of August 18; however, EA is offering Early Access, allowing you to play three days before the global launch. So how can you start playing Madden 24 before August 18?

How to get into Madden 24 Early Access

There are technically two ways to start playing Madden 24 early. The first is to pre-order or purchase the special edition version of the game. The Madden 24 Deluxe Edition costs $99.99 — $30 more than the Standard Edition — and will grant you three-day early access. But it also comes with some other perks such as Dual Entitlement (so you can upgrade from last-gen to current-gen, 4,600 Madden Points, a Josh Allen Elite Player Item in Ultimate Team, and a bit more. Is that worth the $30 upcharge to you?

If not, there’s another way to play Madden 24 on August 15, and that is to subscribe to EA Play. This is EA’s own subscription service. It costs $4.99 per month and gets you monthly rewards, access to EA’s best games, and trials to newly released EA games.

The keyword here is “trials.” As an EA Play member, you’l technically be playing a trial version of Madden 24. It’s still the full game with all of the modes and everything available, but you’re only able to play it for 10 hours. After that, you’ll need to purchase the full game, but as a EA Play member, you’ll get a 10% discount.

If you start playing Madden 24 early through EA Play and decide afterward that you want to buy it, all of the saved progress you’ve made will carry over into your full game.

These are currently the only two ways to get into Madden 24’s Early Access on August 15. If you’re sticking to the Standard Edition of the game, you can start playing on August 18.