Games like Football Manager to keep us happy until FM 2026 finally comes out

A lot of people at this point are probably a bit tired of Football Manager 2024, despite some truly awesome mods trying to spice the game up. It’s been out for a year and a half (though it feels like ten years, to be honest). I’ve personally found it hard recently to keep up the motivation with my save.

Some of the most popular Football Manager content creators are also feeling a bit disillusioned with the game at the moment. Zealand (who we interviewed here) released a video just a few days ago titled Football Manager Isn’t Fun Anymore. While the FM YouTubing legend does give some ideas for making the game fun again, but it’s still a good summary of how a lot of us are feeling right now.

So, because of this, you might be looking for a bit of an alternative to get you through the next few months. And I’m not just talking about other football simulation games because let’s be honest, most of them are pretty crap. (Although, this one FIFA Manager mod is surprisingly amazing.)

This article is here to hopefully give you a bit of inspiration if you’re looking for a game that’s similar to Football Manager and scratches that same itch. A game that might not be about a remotely similar topic, but is the same in spirit.

Out of the Park 26

This could also be the time you choose to discover an alternative sport as well. Both Football Manager and Out of the Park 26 (OOTP) are stat-heavy, detail-obsessed sims that let you live out your front-office fantasy, whether you’re building a baseball dynasty or a footballing empire. It could be argued that OOTP is actually more detailed than Football Manager. In this game, you can play as any MLB franchise, from any point in history. That’s over 100 years of teams you can manage. But both games have more in common than not. In both, you’re not just picking line-ups. You’re scouting young talent, managing contracts, obsessing over player development curves, and trying to stay sane during a 162-game season or a brutal relegation scrap. If you love spreadsheets and storylines, then this game is for you.

Civilization VII

On the surface, Football Manager and Civilization couldn’t be more different. One’s about touchline tactics, the other’s about world domination. But they scratch the exact same itch. Both are all about making long-term plans, tweaking endless systems, and slowly watching your masterplan come to life. Both games are also the kings of the “just one more turn, then I’ll go to bed” trap. If you love the grind of building something from nothing and obsessing over every little stat, Civ is basically FM with nuclear bombs instead of free agents.

Motorsport Manager

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out why Football Manager and this game are like cousins. Motorsport Manager is a racing strategy game where you take control of a motorsport team, from signing drivers and engineers to fine-tuning your car setup and making real-time race-day decisions. You don’t drive the car yourself; instead, you manage everything behind the scenes, balancing performance, finances, staff morale, and long-term development. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s basically Football Manager on four wheels.

It’s unlicensed, which means it’s a completely fictional world, but as Football Manager players know with regens, this means you’re free to create a fantastical and immersive world of your own. Motorsport is becoming more popular around the world, so games like this will only continue to grow in popularity. If you love the feeling of making the right call under pressure and watching it pay off (or completely backfire), Motorsport Manager hits that same sweet spot as FM.

Cities: Skylines II

It’s definitely had mixed reviews since it was released in 2023, but there’s no denying the crazy number of similarities between this game and Football Manager. In both games, success comes from the same place: long-term planning, reacting to constant problems, and optimising countless moving parts. Whether you’re trying to fix a traffic nightmare or figure out why your star striker hasn’t scored in ten games, it’s that same satisfying feeling of tweaking and tinkering until things click. And let’s be honest… both games will have you staring at charts and graphs for way longer than any normal person should. If you’re not convinced by the reviews of this game, there are plenty of alternative city-building simulators to choose from.

RimWorld

If Football Manager is about managing overpaid athletes with fragile egos, RimWorld is about managing space colonists with even worse mood swings. It’s a sci-fi colony sim where you’re not directly controlling people, but shaping their environment, assigning priorities, and reacting to chaos. Sound familiar? Both games are really about managing people, whether it’s keeping your striker happy after you sub him off, or stopping your chef from having a mental breakdown because he saw a dead squirrel. It’s FM with more fire, cannibalism, and solar flares… but the same depth of systems and storytelling.

Other games similar to Football Manager: Crusader Kings III (strategy role-playing game in the Middle Ages), Anno 1800 (city-building/industrial revolution sim), Age of Empires IV (real-time strategy game)

Of course, nothing really scratches the FM itch like FM. It’s like crack for the mind. While we’re still finding expert new tactics and creating our own challenges like the Moneyball save, it’s time for something a little new… at least until the next game finally rolls around.