EA SPORTS FC™ 26

News Article

EA SPORTS FC™ 26 | FUT Deep Dive

August 5, 2025

A new chapter for Football Ultimate Team.

In FC 26, FUT is changing based on how you play and what you’ve asked for.

New ways to compete with Live Events. Tournaments are back with knockout play. A new mode called Gauntlets brings all new challenges. Rivals and Champions are also getting big improvements.

For the first time, FUT will have tailor-made gameplay tuning in Competitive Gameplay, which adds more control, consistency, and responsiveness.

We’ve also made changes to Evolutions, match outcomes, and more, all based on your feedback. Let’s jump in.

What's New?

Competitive Gameplay: Gameplay centering on responsiveness, more consistency, and higher control.
Live Events: A new way to compete, with varied match settings, entry requirements, and new formats including Tournaments and Gauntlets.
Rivals & Champs Revamp: No more Playoffs. Direct qualification, new Bounties, and Limited Checkpoints.
FUT Match Outcome Improvements: Additional updates in FC 26 to award a win when an opponent quits or disconnects during a draw.
Evolutions Updates: Evolve Goalkeepers, combine cosmetic upgrades without losing existing styles and maintain the look of your players when upgrading them.

Let’s dig into the full details.

Live Events

Building on Friendlies, Live Events are a new pillar of FUT’s competitive structure. They're designed to bring more variety in what you play, and the squads you use throughout each season. This is where you’ll experience themed competitions which challenge your ability to build and play with different squads.

You’ll access them through the new Event Hub, built with a streamlined interface that makes it easy to check event availability, requirements, rewards, and your progress at a glance.

Entry Requirements

To enter some Live Events, your squad may need to meet custom criteria. Requirements are intended to create a competitive layer of progression and can enable you to qualify for special locked Live Event which may include:

Completing a specific Objective or Objective Group
Reaching a Rivals Division
Rarity, Club, League, or Nation count
Player Quality
Chemistry or Position rules

In-game screen from FC 26 featuring a football team formation for a limited-time event, with squad requirements and progress details.

Custom Rules & Match Settings

Live Events can also include:

House Rules (Classic Match, Max Chemistry, First to X Goals, Mystery Ball, No Rules, Long Range, Swaps, and Survival)
Match Limits
Solo only, Co-op only, or open matchmaking

This means you’ll encounter events where every match feels different.

Objective Linking

Rewards and your progression towards them are well known to Friendlies fans, but often require you to jump across multiple menus to track your progress. Events are streamlining this for you, giving you direct access to claim what you’ve earned without digging through the Objective menus. In FC 26 you’ll be able to spend more time on the pitch and less time navigating menus. Each event will highlight its own set of Objectives that you are able to complete in that event.

In-game screen from FC 26 that features Event Status and Objectives tiles for a limited-time event. The Objectives tile is highlighted, with a "View Objective" button.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking can be configured for each individual Live Event to use either:

Per Event winform: Your match record in that specific Live Event only
Global winform: Your match record across other Global winform events

In-game screen from FC 26 FUT mode featuring a For You tab, within which a Single Nation Tournament event is detailed.

The FUT Play Menu has been reworked from the ground up in FC 26 to make it easier to navigate, discover, and jump into your preferred modes. Allowing you to not only see new and upcoming Live Events at a glance, but also their rewards.

The redesigned menu uses the following categories:

For You

The For You tab is your personalized hub within the new Play Menu, surfacing the most relevant content based on your activity.

It contains three distinct categories:

New: Freshly launched competitions, updated in real-time
Continue Playing: Shows your last played modes
Upcoming: Shows future events in chronological order, allowing you to preview entry and squad requirements to prepare your squads in advance

Online

Rush
Rivals
Champions
Challengers
Online Draft

Play vs. CPU

Squad Battles
Moments
Single Player Draft

Play vs. Friend

Couch Play (Classic Match)
Play a Friend (Classic Match)

We’ve streamlined Friendlies by removing Online Play and all House Rules match types focusing this space solely on Classic Matches.

Other Tabs

FC Pro
PlayStation Tournaments
Up to 6 Live Events tabs, populated dynamically throughout the season

Tournaments Are Back

Tournaments bring back a classic knockout format with new structures and a flexible schedule, designed to appear at key moments rather than run every week or stay evergreen like Rivals or Champs. Full details on timing and rewards will be shared in the Launch Update Pitch Notes.

Tournaments may include:

Specific entry requirements (Objective progress, Division rank, etc.)
Entry limits with refreshes

Each Tournament brings its own rewards, with different squad rules and setups across the season to keep things fresh.

In-game screen from FC 26 showing details of a Single Nation Tournament, including current round, entries, and group reward information.

In-game screen from FC 26 featuring tournament bracket for a Single Nation Tournament. It displays 16 matchups and stages leading to the Finals.

Gauntlet

Gauntlets are a new way to test your club depth and your ability across multiple matches. Each Gauntlet consists of up to five matches. However, instead of using the same squad each match, you’ll need to use a completely different squad for every match, including the entire subs bench.

At launch we’ll kick things off with the Ultimate Gauntlet, featuring three rounds (requiring three unique squads) and running every two weeks to start. This is just the beginning, with more details to come in our launch update.

Unlike Tournaments, there’s no elimination here. You can keep playing through the full Gauntlet regardless of results, but the more you win, the better the rewards.

It’s a format where squad building choices matter just as much as what happens on the pitch.

In-game screen from FC 26 featuring details of a live event titled 'Ultimate Gauntlet' alongside a squad formation.

In-game screen from FC 26 featuring tiles for player progress and objectives for a live event titled 'Ultimate Gauntlet'.

FC Pro Live Events

FC 26 integrates directly with FC Pro for the first time and provides top-tier Division Rivals players the opportunity to compete against the very best. On PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, you can:

Register for FC Pro competitions directly from within Football Ultimate Team
Compete, win and climb regional leaderboards based on your peak ELO
Qualify for onward FC Pro competitions such as the FC Pro Open (PS5 only)

Rivals Revamp

Our focus in FC 26 is bringing more fan requested changes to Football Ultimate Team. As we listened to your feedback on Rivals three key themes emerged:

In Football Ultimate Team, it feels like there are too many matches to play, especially if you’re aiming for top ranked rewards.
Once you’ve climbed the Divisions and are consistently matched up against similarly skilled players, the motivation to keep playing can taper off.
Hitting a good run of form can leave you stranded in a higher division that you might not belong to, creating huge losing streaks as you wait for the season to refresh.

We’ll have more details to share on Rivals matches and rewards closer to launch in the Launch Update Pitch Notes, but know we hear you and we’re working on it. Today we’re going to run through new systems designed to make Rivals feel exciting and rewarding, even if you don’t walk away with the win.

Bounties

Bounties are randomly triggered challenges that apply to your next Rivals match. Complete one and you’ll earn rewards immediately ranging from Rivals Points, Champions Qualification Points, Coins, Packs, Season XP to even Rivals Stage Skips, allowing you to progress up the ladder faster.

These are some examples of Bounties that you might encounter while playing:

Score the first goal
Score the last goal
Win by two or more
Keep a clean sheet

Many Bounties can be completed even if you don’t go on to win the match, ensuring that you still have something to play for in each match.

Duels

Duels are special Bounties that attempt to match you with opponents on the same challenge, like Score First, ensuring that only one player can walk away with the reward.

In-game screen from FC 26 showing Division Rivals mode with rewards, progress, and weekly goals for players to achieve.

Limited Checkpoints

Limited Checkpoints are a new form of breakable checkpoint that tracks losses and enables relegation once broken. You’ll see how many losses remain when selecting the Limited Checkpoint, and the number of losses before it breaks can be different between each Checkpoint.

These Checkpoints are intended to help prevent players from getting stuck outside of their skill equilibrium for long periods of time, and will reset at the beginning of each Rivals season.

In-game screen from FC 26 showing the Division Rivals progression and weekly rewards. A limited checkpoint message is displayed beside the Rewards tile.

Champions & Challengers

At times, qualifying for Champions through Playoffs was a tougher competition than Champions itself while for our most skilled players, it was an extra skill check each week.

In response to feedback around the number of required matches, Playoffs have been removed in FC 26 and are no longer part of Champions.

Instead, you’ll qualify directly for Champions by reaching a specific Rivals Division and collecting Champions Qualification Points.

We’ll have more details on the exact Rivals Division to qualify for Champions in the FUT Launch Update Pitch Notes closer to launch.

In-game screen from FC 26 displaying the Champions event with ranks, entry requirements, and performance stats for players.

Challengers

For players outside the top divisions, we’ve added Challengers, a new tier of Champions with its own format and rewards. This gives more players a chance to experience the Champions feeling while keeping Champions as the highest level of competition.

Competitive Gameplay

Competitive Gameplay is a new tuning set made specifically for FUT, built around three core ideas: responsiveness, more consistency, and higher player control.

This change is a direct result of your feedback, from the comments, posts, and threads, to the hours of conversations we’ve had with the community about how our game could improve. Now we can tweak, tune, and change gameplay specifically for Competitive play.

You’ll notice it in the details:

Fewer keeper rebound goals and tackles bouncing back to opponents, cutting down on randomness across the pitch
Adjusted player stamina, so controlled players stay agile longer, encouraging active defending and smart switching
More responsive one-touch passing and shooting, now triggerable as little as one frame before receiving the ball

It’s not just fast-paced. It’s intended to be a more consistent gameplay experience.

More info on Competitive Gameplay: https://www.ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/fc-26/news/pitch-notes-fc26-gameplay-deep-dive.

Updated Match Outcomes In Football Ultimate Team

In EA SPORTS FC 25, we released a post-launch update to match outcomes in FUT, focused on player frustration around not receiving a win when an opponent quits a Football Ultimate Team match when it’s a draw.

In FC 26, we are taking another step forward here, adding disconnects (including dashboard quits) to the previously enabled quits.

What this means is that when certain conditions are met, when playing Live Events, Rivals, and Champions you would receive a win when your opponent either quits or disconnects from the match when the score line is a draw.

We are still finalizing what those conditions will be, but similar to how this worked in FC 25, there will be a limit on the number of times a player is able to receive a win from this each day, as well as a set of conditions within the match itself that would need to be met. We will communicate the specifics around those conditions closer to launch in the Launch Update Pitch Notes.

As we discussed last year, this is a complex space. When we change how players get wins, draws, or losses, exploits may occur, so we must be careful about how we make these changes. What is listed here may also change, based on whether our analysis and/or observations indicate that these changes are negatively impacting the player experience.

More to come on this closer to launch.

RUSH Match Outcomes / Matchmaking Delays

We know that the best RUSH matches are built on the experiences you have with your teammates. So when those teammates are quitting or disconnecting, it can be a frustrating experience.

To encourage teammates in FUT RUSH to keep fighting until the end of the match, we are introducing matchmaking delays in FUT RUSH for players who consistently leave matches early.

We are still finalizing the specifics around this, which we will communicate to you ahead of launch in the Launch Update Pitch Notes. We will also be closely monitoring feedback on this as it’s a new space for FC and we may need to make adjustments as we see how it impacts the player experience.

GK, Repeatable Evolutions, & Cosmetic Upgrades

Yes, GK Evos are coming to FC 26!

We’re also making additional changes that give you more freedom & clearer progression as you build your Football Ultimate Team.

Repeatable Evolutions

Repeatable Evolutions give you more flexibility, with some able to be completed multiple times, similar to select SBCs or Objectives.

Most will be limited repeatable, meaning they can be completed a set number of times. Allowing you to apply them to multiple Player Items or even use them again on the same Player Item if eligible. It takes the pressure off making the “perfect” choice right away and gives you more freedom to shape your squad your way

Cosmetic Stacking & Rarity Layers

You can now evolve players without changing their item design, unless a specific Evolution changes the rarity.
Evolution status is marked with new Badging that can also be used in Squad Requirements, making it easier to track and build around evolved players in Live Events, and Rush.
Cosmetic upgrades now stack, and only overwrite each other when they affect the same type, so your unique looks stay intact across Evolutions.
Even when an item’s rarity changes, animation and badge effects that aren’t tied to rarity will carry over. Plus, Evolution consumables now preview the cosmetics and rarity they unlock, helping you choose the right path for your squad.

Two player items of Bradley Barcola from FC 26 displaying various stats. The second item shows higher stats indicating evolution.

Note that FC 26 Ultimate Edition owners start with 2 active Evo slots at launch.

Graduated Transfer Market Access

In-game screen from FC 26 showing a locked Transfer Market, asking the player to complete objectives in order to unlock the market access.

Graduated Access, which limits some accounts' access to the Transfer Market when they first access Football Ultimate Team, has been live in EA SPORTS FC 25 on PC since late 2024. In FC 26, it will be active for all platforms, starting at launch.

If you're a returning FUT player on the same platform (Xbox, PlayStation, PC or Switch), and your account meets the requirements and is in good standing, you’ll have immediate access to the full Transfer Market when you log in for the first time in FC 26.

If you are a new player or your account did not meet the requirements, a series of Foundation Objectives will grant Transfer Market access once they have been completed, and a period of time has passed.

Limiting transfer market access for new accounts helps protect the economy from potential rules-breaking activity while ensuring that actual new players are introduced to FUT at a more measured pace. It’s one more way we’re focusing on player trust and system integrity from day one.

Objectives

In-game screen from FC 26 showing Squad Battles main menu screen displaying game mode options and objectives.

Previously, you would have to navigate to Objectives in order to find available objectives and their rewards. In the new FC 26 Play Menu, relevant objectives will be viewable while highlighting each game mode. For Live Events, you can also see the entry requirements, so you know exactly what’s needed to join.

We’ll be sharing even more FUT details in upcoming Launch Update Pitch Notes and on our social channels, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. As always keep the feedback coming, keep letting us know what you think over on the Feedback Hub.

Pre-orders are now available for EA SPORTS FC 26, which will launch on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Amazon Luna, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. EA SPORTS FC 26 will be available worldwide to play on September 26, 2025, with early access through the Ultimate Edition beginning September 19, 2025*.

Thanks to those who’ve provided and continue to provide feedback. Throughout the course of the EA SPORTS FC 26 season, we'll provide you with more information and updates if and when they become available. Be sure to follow @‌EASFCDIRECT on X and to check out the EA SPORTS FC Tracker for the latest news and updates. Stay in the conversation on all things EA SPORTS FC™ by joining our official Discord, following us on our official X, Instagram, and YouTube, and participating in the official EA SPORTS FC Forums.