EA Sports FC 26’s lukewarm reception speaks to a series past its prime

Tracking concurrent players, FC 26 has not seen the annual growth that if expected of the flagship football game. User reviews are even more stark, with players complaining that the series has become an “arcade” game over time. Now in its third year since ending the partnership with FIFA, is the shine starting to come off of our former favourite football series?

To see if there’s truth to these claims, I looked at comparative statistics from Steam, since, despite these games being available across all major platforms, player figures are most significant on PC. When released in October 2024, EA Sports FC 25 hit a peak of 108,915 players in that month. This represented a huge increase compared to the player peak for EA Sports FIFA 2023, which hit a peak of only 83,972 players in October 2023. EA Sports FC 26, however, has not followed the same trajectory.

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• EA Sports FC 26 has fewer players on release than its predecessor.
• Player reviews of FC 26 are also very negative, following a trend of negative reviews from last year’s edition.
• EA’s monetisation strategy in FC 26 has taken heavy criticism for being a ‘pay-to-win’ system.
• There’s a distinct lack of depth in the game across all of its modes.
• With player numbers declining and fans growing dissatisfied, the franchise will need to make changes soon.

A numbers game

This year’s edition actually showed a decline in concurrent players. EA Sports FC 26 has hit only around 100,000 concurrent players in October 2025. Given the circumstances that surround the elderly franchise, this is likely the result of growing dissatisfaction around EA’s decisions regarding the style of the series in recent years.

After reaching its overall peak in January 2025, EA Sports FC 25 then entered a decline until it was replaced by this year’s edition. If EA Sports FC 26 cannot catch up with its predecessor after the Christmas and New Year bump, then it may be a sign that fans are giving the yellow card to EA.

Reviews and revolt

According to both Metacritic and other review sources, it’s clear that consumers have been unhappy with the direction of EA FC for several years. On Steam alone, only 51% of reviews in English were positive for last year’s instalment. This has dropped to 47% in this year’s game.

Even positive reviews often slam the game’s online monetisation elements. In one highly-rated positive Steam review, user Iapetus condemned the online play experience, a cornerstone of the series. “This game is a micro-transaction pit of monetisation. EA continues to be a casino for young gamers, normalising the spending of real money, in large amounts, on ability-influencing experiences.”

Negative experiences of the monetization in FC 26 are a common theme across all reviews. On release, EA is offering the purchase of ‘FC Points’ for use in micro-transactions in bundles up to a value of approximately $170 (£129.99). 

While this is a common practice in sports games, EA has been consistently criticised for the perceived pay-to-win elements in online play. Compare this to MLB The Show, for example, where competent play and engagement in events will usually net you enough high-quality players to hold your own online with minimal spending.

Some users poked fun at the seemingly stagnant format and EA’s failure to innovate after so many years of developing the EA FC series. “They’ve done it.”, said Steam user Sherman in a review that was nonetheless a recommendation, “The madlads actually did it. FC 26 has arrived, and the level of innovation is staggering. They changed the font on the main menu and moved a button two pixels to the left. I’m still catching my breath.”

But the highest-rated review on Steam at the time of writing deserves special mention. User ‘Running Freak’ demolished FC 26 in a lengthy review, ending by saying, “I hate this company from the bottom of my heart. They’ve ruined something that used to be exciting and turned it into a soulless money-printing machine. Absolute disgrace.”

As deep as a puddle

Players have long criticized the EA FC series for adopting an arcade-like approach to football, with players behaving unrealistically on the pitch and the games exhibiting a notable lack of tactical depth. While EA repeatedly claims to improve this with every year’s edition, there is little evidence that this has taken hold.

This is not limited to the main modes. I recently reviewed Football Manager 26 for VideoGamer, and while I did have my criticisms of that game, the Football Manager series remains the gold standard of soccer management games. 

EA FC has offered a manager mode for some time, but compared to the depth offered by its more focused competitor, it is a shallow, amateurish experience.

There is a sense of decay across EA Sports FC 26. Ultimate Team is nothing more than a pay-to-win lootbox system. Career mode shows a distinct lack of polish, and the AI’s behaviour in midfield and in goal is still nothing like what you would expect from a franchise that has been around for so many years.

If the trend in player sentiment continues and football fans continue to look elsewhere for their kicks, then perhaps EA will be forced to finally confront the issues that lie at the heart of the long-running franchise. 

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