$69.99 at launch. $20.99 seven months later. 46% approval from over 17,000 players who bothered to vote.

EA SPORTS FC 26 is the seventh best-selling game on Steam right now, buoyed by the biggest discount in its short history. Seventy percent off will do that. But strip away the price tag and the chart position, and you’re left with a game whose community has spent the better part of a year telling everyone who will listen that it’s not very good.

The Numbers Don’t Lie, But They Disagree

Professional reviewers gave FC 26 a Metacritic score of 77 — “generally favorable,” the highest since EA and FIFA parted ways in 2023. Users handed it a 2.9. That’s not a gap. That’s a canyon.

On Steam, the picture is similarly grim: 17,637 reviews, and fewer than half are positive. The “Mixed” label is Steam’s polite way of saying the audience is divided, but 46% isn’t really a divide. It’s a referendum.

The top positive review on the store page reads, in its entirety: “ts will give me packluck.” Twenty-eight hours played. Another positive review offers: “The Game Is very good only issue is input delay lag and causing it not to play.” The top negative review is just the word “suck,” five and a half hours in.

From Optimism to Backlash

It didn’t start this way. EA’s marketing leaned heavily on community feedback, and the early reception reflected genuine hope. A Metacritic average of 77 from critics suggested something had clicked. But the goodwill didn’t survive contact with the actual game.

Prominent content creator AA9Skillz called FC 26 “the worst FIFA/FC title ever made” in a post on X that racked up 1.6 million views. His complaint wasn’t about gameplay alone — it was about broken promises. EA said it was listening. Players say it wasn’t. Reward nerfs, overpriced Squad Building Challenges, and daily content updates that consistently missed the mark eroded whatever trust the launch had built.

Former competitive player BorasLegend called the game “another store-pack-fest disaster class.” He’s pointing at the monetization engine that has defined Ultimate Team for years: expensive SBCs that effectively require spending real money on FC Points. The TOTY Honorable Mentions Messi and Ronaldo Player Pick SBC demanded roughly 3 million coins worth of fodder to complete — a figure that makes the $69.99 base price look like pocket change.

The Viewership Exodus

Players aren’t just complaining. They’re leaving.

Twitch data from TwitchTracker tells an unflattering story. In January 2026 — historically one of the strongest periods in the annual cycle thanks to the Team of the Year campaign — FC 26 averaged around 26,000 viewers. FC 25 averaged 38,000 in the same month a year earlier. FC 24 pulled 51,000. That’s a near-halving of the audience in two years.

SteamCharts data tracks a similar trajectory. FC 26 averaged roughly 49,000 players and peaked at 95,000 in January 2026. FC 25 averaged 53,000 and peaked at 108,000 in January 2025. The trend is clear, and it’s not upward.

A Simulation That Doesn’t Simulate

Gameplay feedback on EA’s own forums describes a game with fundamental balance problems. Players report a near-95% conversion rate for shots inside the box, making goalkeeper ratings virtually meaningless. Near-post shots from tight angles go in almost every time. Long shots from outside the box convert at under 10%. Through balls are too fast and too accurate. Defenders turn like cargo ships. Defensive AI leaves gaps wide enough to drive a bus through.

This is the core product under the monetization layer — and it’s what players are rejecting.

The Business Works. The Product Doesn’t.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: the model doesn’t require the game to be good. FC 26 is sitting at #7 on Steam’s Top Sellers chart with 73,303 concurrent players at a 70% discount. According to Soccer Gaming, player counts typically jump during these discount windows, and last year’s FC 25 eventually hit 80% off during the Steam Summer Sale. EA will likely run the same playbook again.

None of this requires quality. It requires the game to be $21, and for Ultimate Team to keep the spenders spending. Critics hand out 77s. Players hand out 2.9s. The revenue keeps flowing. The cycle repeats in September.

That’s the annual sports game dilemma in a sentence: the business is immune to quality because the audience is captive. FC 27 will launch at full price. It will promise to listen. And the chasm between the Metascore and the user score will tell you everything you need to know.

Sources