EA Sports FC 26 also has a new international competition mode that is totally distinct.
The World Cup tournament begins soon, so it’s no surprise to see some video games capitalizing on the football frenzy. For official, FIFA-branded video gaming, the source this year is Netflix. The sports league announced in December that the streaming service would host a “reimagined FIFA football simulation game” — and today Netflix shared that its take is called FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition and it will be available on June 11.
The game is free to anyone with a Netflix subscription. It uses smartphones to control players from all 48 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup. The “streamlined” take on a soccer sim can be played solo or with up to four people in multiplayer. Netflix said that the game “will evolve over time but gives the immediate rush of playing along during this historic World Cup event.”
If you favor the office over the pitch, there’s also licensed content for the tournament in Football Manager 26. That game rolled out its initial patch for the World Cup last month, and has another update slated for sometime in June before the real world matches begin.
EA might have ended its licensing arrangement with FIFA, but that doesn’t mean its soccer sims are going to ignore the sport’s biggest tournament. Instead, the company is launching “The World’s Game update.” Totally different. The definitely-not-a-World-Cup tournament mode is available as a free update today for EA Sports FC 26 and EA Sports FC Mobile. It includes 53 fully licensed teams, including 41 that are participating in the actual Cup this summer.
