06 Nov, 2025
Is Football Manager 26 Worse Than Previous FM Games: According to the Numbers
Our resident Football Manager expert takes you through the launch week response & sales of FM 26 and how sales will look for SI moving forward!
It’s been two weeks since Football Manager 2026 launched and it’s fair to say… things are messy. Steam reviews are in the mud, but strangely, the numbers tell another story. Despite the backlash, FM26’s launch metrics are surprisingly solid.
Football Manager 26 Launch Week Sales:
According to SteamDB data, the all-time peak concurrent player count for FM26 within its first two weeks sits at 84,909. That figure is roughly 23% higher than Football Manager 2024’s launch month peak (68,865), and around 12% higher than FM23’s (75,965). So in pure player activity terms, it’s performed better than usual.
That might sound surprising given the general chaos around its launch. But Football Manager has always been an outlier in how players interact with it. Most games spike hard on launch day before falling off a cliff. Football Manager, on the other hand, is like fine wine. The longer it sits, the more people come back and appreciate it more. FM24 actually started slower, just under 69k at launch, before climbing past 80k by January. Most studios would kill for that kind of post-launch momentum.
Will FM 26 Follow Historical Trends of the Series?
That pattern, early consistency followed by steady post-launch growth, has been a hallmark of the series for years. Players settle into their long-term saves, modders release new skins and databases, and the community keeps the game alive well beyond its release window.The problem for FM26 is that it’s currently missing that feel-good factor. While the raw player numbers are in the same ballpark as FM23 and FM24, the overall sentiment around the game could threaten that usual growth curve. As of now, only around one in five reviews on Steam are positive. That’s not just bad. It’s historically bad for a Football Manager release.
And this matters, because the series’ strength isn’t just about who shows up on launch weekend, it’s about who sticks around in December, January and beyond. If FM26 wants to match the trajectory of its predecessors, it needs those returning players to offset the negativity and prove that the hardcore base still believes in it.
Final Thoughts:
In other words, FM26’s numbers look fine for now, but it could quickly get ugly. If the developers at Sports Interactive manage to address the major complaints around the new UI and gameplay balance, there’s every chance it follows the traditional FM pattern: a dip, a few patches, and then a resurgence as players give it another shot.
If they don’t? We might see the first Football Manager in years where January doesn’t bring that trademark peak. That would be a first for the series. Unless things change quickly, it might be the first time in a long while that “one more save” turns into “maybe I’ll wait for next year” (edited)
Want to know what the best defensive tactic in FM 26 is? Look no further!
Find out the 10 things you probably did not know about Football Manager 26!
Do not miss the most comprehensive list of wonderkids at every position in FM26 made by our resident FM expert!
