Football Manager 26: Release Date, Platforms, Price and Why Players Are Divided

The Football Manager 2026 release date was 4 November 2025. Sports Interactive and SEGA released it as Football Manager 26 (FM26) on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Apple Arcade and Netflix, after cancelling Football Manager 25 earlier that year. It's the first Football Manager built in the Unity engine, the first with the Premier League fully licensed, and the first with women's football. It has also been the most divisive entry in years. Here's everything about FM26, from platforms and price to its Steam reviews, its updates and what comes next.

Football Manager 26 at a glance

When did Football Manager 2026 come out?

Football Manager 26 launched on 4 November 2025. Players who pre-purchased on Steam or the Epic Games Store could play an Advanced Access Beta beforehand, and those saves carried straight over into the full game. The Nintendo Switch version, FM26 Touch, followed digitally on 4 December 2025.

What platforms is Football Manager 26 on?

Sports Interactive released FM26 in several editions:

• Football Manager 26 (PC and Mac): on Steam, the Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass.
• Football Manager 26 Console: on Xbox and PS5, and on Xbox Game Pass.
• Football Manager 26 Touch: on Apple Arcade (iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV), plus Nintendo Switch from 4 December 2025.
• Football Manager 26 Mobile: exclusive to Netflix members, and the only edition not made with Unity.

How much is Football Manager 26?

On Steam, FM26 costs £49.99 / $59.99. It's included with PC Game Pass, FM26 Console is on Xbox Game Pass, FM26 Touch comes with an Apple Arcade subscription and FM26 Mobile with a Netflix membership. The PC version and FM26 Console were also free to play for a weekend in April 2026, with 40% off afterwards.

What's new in Football Manager 26?

• Unity engine: a new technical foundation, a reimagined interface and a more immersive match day.
• Premier League licence: fully licensed club badges, kits and official player photos, with broadcast-style presentation.
• Women's football: 14 playable leagues from 11 nations, including the Women's Super League and the NWSL, in one football world.
• FIFA World Cup 2026: officially licensed, with new national-team tools and a tournament-specific start date.
• In and Out of Possession formations: separate shapes for when you have the ball and when you don't, with redefined player roles.
• New interface: the Portal hub, Bookmarks, an overhauled Search and the FMPedia glossary.
• TransferRoom: new recruitment tools, including Requirements and Pitch Opportunities.
• Manager creation: a new character creator and a career backstory.

Why is Football Manager 26 rated so badly on Steam?

FM26 is rated Mostly Negative on Steam, with 36% of more than 36,000 reviews positive. Recent reviews are kinder at Mixed (60% of the last 277, as of 17 October 2026), after months of updates. The complaints focus on the new interface and the step away from FM24:

• Steam reviewer Soup, who has played every edition since 2005, called it "a terrible, unfinished mess of a game".
• Confusion found the interface convoluted, with too many drop-down menus to find simple things.
• Smokaya, with more than 3,000 hours, argued that Sports Interactive underestimated the work of moving the series to Unity.
• On the other side, Attck24 gave it another chance after several updates and said the developers had "made significant progress", with most of the major launch bugs fixed.

These are individual players' opinions. Sports Interactive's own update notes list many of the fixes they mention.

What updates has Football Manager 26 had?

Sports Interactive has patched FM26 regularly since launch, from update 26.0.4 two days after release through 26.1 in December and 26.3 in March 2026. According to the studio, the updates improved stability and performance, reworked in-game navigation, brought back in-match Shouts, redesigned several screens and upgraded the Match Engine AI.

The biggest content update was 26.3.2 on 9 June 2026, the second International Management update. It made all 48 teams at the FIFA World Cup 2026 playable with licensed kits, added an option to start a save with the confirmed World Cup squads and fixed several crashes. Saves from FM23 and FM24 can also be carried into FM26.

Watch the Football Manager 26 launch trailer

The official launch trailer from the Football Manager YouTube channel.

Is there a Football Manager 27?

Yes. Sports Interactive has announced Football Manager 27 for 10 November 2026 on Steam, Epic, the Xbox PC app and Game Pass, with FM27 Console (Xbox and PS5) and FM27 Mobile (Netflix) launching the same day. The studio says FM27 focuses on a clearer interface, smoother navigation and a more immersive football world, which answers many of the complaints about FM26.

Football Manager 26 PC requirements

More Football Manager news on iGame Magazine

• Football Manager 2025 cancelled: what happened? – why FM26 was the next game in the series
• FM24's missing transfer window update – the last game before the switch to Unity
• EA Sports FC 24 review – the other side of football gaming

Football Manager 26 FAQ