FIFA (video game series)

• 1. Introduction

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  FIFA 12 sold more than 3.2 million copies in its first week, and it generated over $186 million at retail. That earned it the record for the fastest-selling sports game ever. FIFA is a football simulation franchise, and Guinness World Records lists it as the best-selling sports video game series in the world. Between 1993 and 2022, EA Vancouver and EA Romania developed it, and EA Sports published it. By 2011, the games had been translated into 18 languages and reached 51 countries. Yet EA no longer puts the FIFA name on its football games, and the final game under that name has already come and gone. Why did the sport's governing body and its biggest publisher part ways? How did a football game on a 16-bit console grow into one of the biggest franchises in gaming? And who inherited the name?

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• 2. Isometric Debut

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  On the 15th of December 1993, the weeks before Christmas brought a new football game to the Mega Drive. During development it was called EA Soccer. Its full title was FIFA International Soccer, and some people later knew it as FIFA '94.

  Rival games of the day showed the pitch from above, as in Kick Off, or from the side, as in European Club Soccer. Tehkan World Cup and Sensible Soccer used a bird's eye angle. EA chose an isometric view instead, and that made the game stand out. It also carried something no earlier football game had: an official licence from FIFA, the sport's world governing body.

  The licence came with limits. Only national teams appeared, and real player names were not used. A notorious bug let a striker stand in front of the goalkeeper so that the ball rebounded off him and into the net. The game still reached number one in the UK charts, taking the spot from Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition. It stayed there for a full six months. The publication Mega later placed it eleventh in its list of the fifty best Mega Drive games.

  The Mega-CD edition was titled FIFA International Soccer Championship Edition. It borrowed features from the following game and ranked seventh on Mega's list of the top ten Mega CD games. The 3DO version used pseudo-3D cameras and was the most graphically advanced of all. The game was made to celebrate the 1994 World Cup in the United States. The Super NES version had a smaller team selection than the Genesis one, but it held three exclusive teams that had qualified for the real tournament: Bolivia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The plain name International Soccer came from EA's assumption that Americans would have little interest, so the publisher aimed at European buyers.

  FIFA 95 reached shelves on the 10th of November 1994 with the same engine and only minor touch-ups. Its headline addition was club football, spread across eight national leagues. They were Brazil, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, Spain's La Liga, England's Premier League, France's Ligue 1, the Dutch Eredivisie and the United States. Most squads followed the 1993-94 season, but the players were still generic, and many carried over from the previous game. The Brazilian league held only clubs from the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, plus Internacional. The American league was built from teams and players of the A-League, the country's second division.

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• 3. From Sprites to Polygons

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  FIFA 96, released on the 30th of September 1995, was the first game in the series with real player names, thanks to a licence from FIFPro. On PlayStation, PC, 32X and Sega Saturn it ran on EA's Virtual Stadium engine. Flat 2D sprite players moved around a real-time 3D stadium. The Mega Drive and Super NES versions used an updated version of the older engine, and it was also the first game to have a proper introduction.

  The details were still rough. Brazilian rosters were mostly inaccurate, and some featured long-retired players. The American league was entirely fictitious, even though Major League Soccer had been inaugurated only months before. Real MLS clubs would not appear until FIFA 2000.

  FIFA 97, released on the 30th of November 1996, swapped sprites for polygonal players, with motion capture provided by David Ginola. It also added a six-a-side indoor mode.

  On the 8th of November 1997, FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 arrived with "Song 2" by Blur as its intro track. It was the first licensed soundtrack in the series. The game offered 16 stadia, improved artificial intelligence and a Road to World Cup mode covering all FIFA-registered national teams. Players could even adjust the referee's strictness. The offside rule was finally handled properly in the 32-bit version. In earlier games, a player in an offside position who did anything except run was penalised even when the ball went backwards. Now a free kick came only if the ball was passed roughly to where that player stood. It was the last FIFA game on the 16-bit consoles where the series began, and months later World Cup 98 became EA's first officially licensed tournament game.

  FIFA 2000, released on the 26th of October 1999, stumbled. Reviews were mixed, with complaints about a cartoonish graphics engine and shallow gameplay, and many considered it inferior to its rival. Its opening video showed Sol Campbell performing motion capture, then pitted his computer-generated likeness against a retro side from 1904, the year FIFA was founded. The game included more than 40 classic teams, so players could field retired legends. It also placed Port Vale, the club supported by title-song singer Robbie Williams, in the Rest of the World section.

  FIFA 2001, released on the 8th of November 2000, was the first version that could be played online, on PC. It was also the series' first game on a sixth-generation console in the USA and Europe. Its PlayStation edition earned a Gold sales award from ELSPA, which signals at least 200,000 copies sold in the United Kingdom.

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• 4. New Ways to Play

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  FIFA Football 2003, released on the 5th of November 2002, introduced Freestyle Control, which let a player flick the ball on and lay it off to teammates. It also launched EA Trax, the music menu system used in every FIFA title since. A year later, FIFA Football 2004 let players control two footballers at once, so a second runner could move into the box ahead of a pass. It also added second-tier divisions, allowing lower-ranked teams to climb into the top leagues.

  In FIFA 08, a new mode called Be a Pro put the player in charge of a single footballer for the whole match. The same edition added a Practice Arena for dribbling, shooting, free kicks and penalties. On the Wii, it brought motion controls for shooting and three mini-games built around the Wii Remote. FIFA 09 stretched Be a Pro to 10 versus 10 online matches. It was also the first in the series to give users control of their own goal celebrations.

  FIFA 11 replaced Manager Mode with Career Mode, where a player could act as a manager, a player or a player-manager. It also let people play as a goalkeeper for the first time. FIFA 17 was the first to run on the Frostbite engine and the first to include a story mode, called The Journey. The character Alex Hunter, who first appeared there, returned in FIFA 19 for the third and final instalment.

  In 2018, Steve Boxer of The Guardian called FIFA 18 "the slickest, most polished and by far the most popular football game around". He admired Ultimate Team, which "encourages you to purchase Panini-sticker-like player packs to build up a dream team". That edition brought Ultimate Team ICONS to every system, including PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

  FIFA 20 introduced Volta Football, which revived the spirit of FIFA Street. It offered 3v3 Rush with no goalkeepers, plus 4v4, 5v5 and professional futsal. FIFA 23 then became the first game in the series to support cross-play, linking players across Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Windows and Stadia at launch.

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• 5. Voices in the Booth

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  John Motson, the first commentator of the series, joined with FIFA 96 and stayed for many editions. His partners over the years included Andy Gray, Chris Waddle, Mark Lawrenson and Ally McCoist, and Des Lynam introduced matches in FIFA 97. In the American version of FIFA 2000, Phil Schoen and Julie Foudy took the booth instead.

  FIFA 06 broke the long tradition. Motson and McCoist were replaced by Clive Tyldesley of ITV and Andy Gray, a former Sky Sports pundit. Martin Tyler then became the default English commentator from 2006 to 2020, working alongside Gray until 2010 and Alan Smith from 2011 to 2020.

  In FIFA 09, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions swapped Tyldesley for Tyler. For the first time, players could buy extra commentator voices in other languages from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace. Another English option paired Tyldesley with Andy Townsend. FIFA 12 added the first Arabic commentary in the series.

  Derek Rae and Lee Dixon debuted in FIFA 19 to cover UEFA competitions. In FIFA 20 they alternated with Tyler and Smith across all competitions. By FIFA 21 they were the sole English-language team. Stewart Robson replaced Dixon alongside Rae in FIFA 22 and FIFA 23. In EA Sports FC 24, Guy Mowbray and Sue Smith arrived as a new duo, alternating with Rae and Robson.

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• 6. The Great Rivalry

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  By the year 2000, the FIFA series had sold more than 16 million units. That made it the best-selling association football video game series. Its great challenger was Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer, usually called PES.

  FIFA at first took a more arcade-style approach. PES played more like a simulation, with faster-paced tactical play and more varied emergent gameplay. That helped PES rival FIFA in sales during the 2000s, and the pairing has been called the "greatest rivalry" in the history of sports video games. EA answered by borrowing gameplay ideas from PES. By the early 2010s, FIFA had pulled ahead commercially by a significant margin, with sales rising by as much as 23 percent year-on-year. In 2010 the series passed 100 million copies and became the most profitable EA Sports title. By 2021 it had sold more than 325 million copies and ranked as the sixth best-selling video game franchise.

  The contest shaped release calendars. FIFA Football 2005 came out on the 11th of October 2004, earlier than the usual late October date, to get a head start on Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and avoid a clash with FIFA Street. In 2012, EA Sports signed Lionel Messi to the franchise, luring him away from PES. His likeness went straight onto the cover of FIFA Street.

  Exclusive licences became weapons. The Japan Football Association sold its exclusive rights to Konami during 2002, so the Japanese national team vanished from nearly every other football game until FIFA 17. EA's own World Cup spin-offs were the exception. EA's UEFA Champions League games appeared in 2005 and 2007, before Konami bought that licence in 2008. Konami lost it in April 2018, and EA bought it for FIFA 19.

  In FIFA 16, Brazilian clubs with exclusivity deals with PES stayed out entirely, while others lent their badges, names and kits but not their players. Juventus signed a partnership with PES 2020, so in FIFA 20 the club appeared as Piemonte Calcio.

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• 7. Cover Stars

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  Wayne Rooney appeared on seven covers of the series, every game from FIFA 06 to FIFA 12. Ronaldinho shared four of them, from FIFA 06 to FIFA 09. He also featured on the covers of FIFA Football 2004, FIFA Street and FIFA Street 3.

  Lionel Messi took four straight covers, from FIFA 13 to FIFA 16. Cristiano Ronaldo fronted FIFA 18 and FIFA 19, and Eden Hazard led FIFA 20. Kylian Mbappé held the cover for three consecutive years, from FIFA 21 to FIFA 23. The cover star usually tends to have the highest OVR rating. For FIFA 17, Marco Reus won the world cover by popular vote over Anthony Martial, Eden Hazard and James Rodríguez.

  In 2013, the Spanish footballer Vero Boquete started a petition on Change.org asking Electronic Arts to add female players. It gathered 20,000 signatures in 24 hours. FIFA 16, released on the 25th of September 2015, included female national teams. FIFA 23 then added playable women's domestic leagues for the first time. They were England's FA Women's Super League, Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga, France's Division 1 Féminine and the American National Women's Soccer League.

  Sam Kerr of Chelsea Women appeared beside Mbappé on the FIFA 23 ultimate edition, becoming the first female footballer on a cover in the franchise's history. When the successor series began with EA Sports FC 24, Erling Haaland took the covers of both the standard and ultimate editions.

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• 8. Licences and the Break

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  FIFA 15 was the first edition released under EA's deal with the English Premier League, which made EA its Official Sports Technology Partner. All 20 stadiums could be photographed and recreated, and the sounds of more than 20 matches were recorded for authentic cheers and chants. Since then, any club promoted to the Premier League has had its stadium added.

  Smaller stories made their way in too. After Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney announced in November 2020 that they would take over Wrexham, the club was included in FIFA 22. It became the first non-League team ever in the series. FIFA 23 added AFC Richmond, the fictional club from the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso.

  Then the partnership fell apart. On the 10th of May 2022, it was announced that the 30-year relationship between EA and FIFA would end when the licensing agreement expired. The two sides had failed to agree on fees for use of the FIFA name. That made FIFA 23 the last entry under the name, released in late September 2022. On the 22nd of September 2023, EA Sports launched EA Sports FC as the direct successor.

  FIFA president Gianni Infantino said, "I can assure you that the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans." In October 2024, FIFA partnered with Konami to host two FIFAe World Cup editions in eFootball, the new name of the old rival PES. In October 2025, FIFA announced FIFA Heroes, its first title outside EA Sports.

  After a four-year hiatus, the name is set to return in 2026 with two games. One is FIFA Heroes, developed and published by ENVER. The other is a currently untitled FIFA game that will be made by Netflix.

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