Football Manager 26 Beta Release Date Leaked?!

Hype is building. “Sick days” are already being booked off. The Football Manager 2026 BETA is coming. Go out onto the street and ask a random person what’s on their mind; chances are, it’s the beta release date. When you combine that level of hype with a Football Manager community full of obsessive sleuths, it’s inevitable the release date will be guessed… or at least every shred of leaked or teased information will be pored over like it’s state secrets.

And now that Miles Jacobson, the studio director of Sports Interactive, the company behind Football Manager, has become more active online, it was only a matter of time before everything he said was scrutinised. Fans on Reddit now believe he may have accidentally ‘leaked’ the BETA date.

FM26 Beta Release Date Leak?

The latest clue comes courtesy of a Reddit post – https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/1o12sw1/miles_may_have_leaked[…]m=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button – after fans spotted a tweet from FM Console summarising an interview with Miles at the Tokyo Game Show.

In that interview, Miles mentioned that as of 24 September there were “around 80 bugs and crashes” still in the game, but by 3 October that number had been cut nearly in half to 43. Crucially, he then referenced a “three-week window” leading up to 15–21 October, exactly the kind of timeframe Football Manager players associate with the BETA dropping.

Naturally, that one throwaway line was enough to send the community into full-on detective mode. The Reddit thread has already racked up hundreds of upvotes, with fans dissecting every word as if it were a Taylor Swift lyric. One commenter joked that they’d already “booked their annual leave for the 15th,” while another warned that it wouldn’t feel like a true FM beta if there weren’t still a few bugs left in the game.

October FM26 Beta release a real possibility?

While nothing has been officially confirmed, the timing makes sense: mid-October has been the sweet spot for the BETA in most recent releases, usually landing about two weeks before the full game’s launch. If the bug-squashing continues at the current pace, that 15–21 October window suddenly looks a lot more realistic.

When do you think the BETA will drop? Are you excited for Football Manager 2026? Let us know in the comments below!

 

For our full coverage and details of the early access beta release click here!

Check out our article covering all the key notes from Miles Jacobson’s latest interview!

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