Madden NFL 26 - Superstar Deep Dive

Hello Madden players! 

Welcome back to Gridiron Notes, your home for Madden NFL 26 news and updates. Today’s the day we dive into both College Football 26’s Road to Glory and Madden NFL 26’s Superstar Mode! This year marks the 20th anniversary of Superstar Mode and it’s the fastest-growing mode in Madden over the last two years. We’re excited to bring you a host of information about everything new in the modes, straight from the developers! 

Superstar Introduction

Madden NFL 26 marks the 20th anniversary of Superstar, the first completely player-centric career mode in Madden history. Twenty years ago, experiencing a team sport like football through the lens of an individual player was an entirely new concept, but its inception inspired a new genre of gaming. To celebrate this twenty-year milestone, the dev team is proud to announce the largest and most impactful update in Superstar’s history.  Built on some of Madden’s strongest technical systems, we have completely revamped the core experience and created a future of possibilities.

Our three new core features are Game Day Beats, Sphere of Influence, and Career Chapters. They all work together to amplify the most authentic and engaging career path Superstar has ever seen. From challenging gameplay modifications on the field, to relationships and consequences off the field, the player journey brings every week of the NFL season to life.

For years, our fans have been asking for higher stakes, more consequences, and better agency in the weekly loop. While skill progression will always be a core part of player development, being an NFL Superstar is more than just an OVR number. In Madden NFL 26, we will deliver a more holistic experience that brings out the Superstar in YOU!

Let’s break down the three new core features and explain how they all work together to redefine the mode.

Career Chapters

Missing from previous iterations of Superstar was a sense of where you stood in your journey at any given time. Yeah, you had an OVR, and maybe you were on a Super Bowl winning team, but how close were you to becoming a true NFL Superstar?  The path to stardom has many steps, and with the addition of Superstar Career Chapters, you’re tangibly stepping your way up to greatness. You will know WHO you are and WHAT you need to do to reach the next level. 

Start as a backup and grind your way to full-time starter by impressing your coach.  From there it only gets harder as you strive to win over teammates, fans and the media, en route to becoming a bonafide legend. Each Chapter of your career comes with clear goals that must be met to move forward in your journey. 

But with a path to greatness comes the peril of consequences. If you don’t meet your goals, you can find yourself regressing and losing playing time to a hungrier teammate.. Only through a combination of skill, success, and personal balance can you eventually reach the top.

It’s important to know that becoming a Superstar is a balancing act.  If you only please your coach, you may never get the love you need from the media to be accepted as a legend.  Or if you only please your fans, and disregard your coach, you’ll be a man of the people… seated firmly on the bench.

Career Chapters - The Backup Experience

The dev team issued a challenge to itself at the beginning of the year; let’s make it FUN to play as a backup. We all know it’s great to be a starter and get all the snaps, but over the years our fans have told us they covet a challenge. Our goal was to capture that sense of challenge in a backup experience that felt interactive, exciting and even dramatic. Luckily, we had great real-life NFL examples, such as “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy checking in for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. Or Russell Wilson coming out of nowhere to unseat a highly-paid free agent and shock the depth chart in Seattle.

We also imposed a design rule; backups shouldn’t have to play through endless chains of drills week in and week out. We believed the backup experience should have realistic game action intertwined with other meaningful opportunities to earn a look as a starter. This game action could be mop-up duty in a blowout where your coach gives you a couple drives to showcase a specific proficiency. Maybe the starter gets banged up and you get a game or two to show what you’ve got. These organic moments that mirror real-life NFL will bring excitement to the daily grind of earning a starting job.

Career Chapters - Getting Benched

Another key element missing from previous versions of Superstar was the threat of consequences. No matter how poorly you played, you always trotted out as next week’s starter. While Career Chapters can be a path to stardom, they can also work the other way. Not meeting coach objectives can put you in hot water, leaving you susceptible to depth chart demotion. 

Benched? Don’t fret. Like Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and Geno Smith, there is a redemption chapter ahead. These chapters allow you to rehabilitate your career and earn favor back with the coaching staff. There is nothing stopping you from earning your spot back and becoming a legend.

Career Chapters - Demanding a Trade

We’re pleased to announce the addition of another feature our fans have been asking for - Trade Demands! Earn enough influence with your agent, and you will have the option to demand a trade at the end of every season. You’re no longer stuck in a bad situation, just demand a trade and pick the new team you want to go to. Your agent will figure out the rest of the details and get you to your new destination before the next season starts.

However, changing teams comes with some consequences. You may have to earn the starting job on your new team, and you will definitely have to build relationships with new teammates all over again.

Career Chapters - Progressing Through Chapters

Moving through chapters requires you to earn influence with key characters by meeting objectives. This is all managed by the Sphere of Influence feature (more on that in a bit). From the Superstar menu, you can always view your current chapter and the objectives you need to hit to reach the next chapter.

Chapter List:

• High Expectations
• Move Up the Depth Chart
• Prove You Belong
• Next Steps
• Becoming Team Leader
• Fan Sensation
• Superstar
• Hall of Famer

Redemption Chapters:

• Find Your Footing
• Earn Your Spot Back
• A Step Back

All Chapter progression has been fully integrated with the next core feature we will be discussing!

Sphere of Influence

The measure of a Superstar is more than just how they perform on the field. It takes strong relationships and a great support system to become a legend. 

This year, Superstar Mode introduces Sphere of Influence, a feature that allows you to form relationships both on and off the field. These relationships are unlocked organically, meaning the way you play will dictate who you bond with. This extends to both the choices you make during gameplay and how you spend your free time during the week.

Balancing all these relationships is one of the greatest challenges of being a Superstar. You can’t please everyone, so deciding how you build and maintain each relationship will impact your career. As a QB, is it best to quickly maximize the connection with your WR1 while ignoring WR3? Or would you rather let everyone eat from the beginning and bring all your WRs along at the same time?

The way to build a relationship with a character is to gain Influence Points with them. These points can be earned by meeting objectives for each character. On the other hand, you can lose Influence Points with a character by doing something they don’t like. A QB not throwing to a star WR is a great example of a way to lose influence quickly. 

Any time you earn or lose Influence Points, you will see an update either in game or in the Superstar notification system. Some characters don’t have a negative side to their relationship, you can only earn points with them. These tend to be support characters who don’t depend directly on your performance.

The Sphere of Influence Hub will showcase your top relationships while also giving you a direct link to everyone you have connected with. You can view the unlockable rewards for each character, and in some cases, the negative impacts of having a poor relationship. Use this screen as a way to keep tabs on all the people in your orbit.

Sphere of Influence - Inner Circle

Like many of the NFL’s iconic duos, there’s a way to form a lasting relationship that can never be tarnished. When you have maximized an Influence level with a particular character, they are enshrined in your Inner Circle. At this point you can no longer lose Influence Points with them, so you never have to worry about getting on their bad side.

Collecting characters in your Inner Circle also provides another advantage. For every character in your Inner Circle, you will be given an Influence modifier to everyone else in your Sphere of Influence.  This means you earn Influence Points at a higher overall rate. The more friends you have, the easier it is to earn the trust of new ones.

Sphere of Influence - Coach

The most important relationship you will have is your head coach. If you want to earn playing time, unlock more of your playbook, or use pre-play commands, you’ll need to have influence with your coach. Hitting weekly objectives and achieving good player grades is the best way to keep your coach happy. But beware, he is also the quickest character to lose confidence in you if things start going south. Hey, the guy has a job to do! Losing influence with him can result in you losing all the privileges he gave you, and it’s also how you can get demoted on the depth chart..

Sphere of Influence - Teammates

We’re very excited about the living world created by teammate Sphere of Influence.  As you play, relationships will react to your playing habits in real time. Are you the type of QB who likes to target your Tight End? You can expect to form a quick bond with him. Maybe you’re a RB who loves running behind the Left Tackle?  He will appreciate how you maximize the holes he gives you. Sphere of Influence utilizes gameplay systems to analyze all your actions and assign influence values, both positive and negative, to the teammates around you.

Teammate influence unlocks some of the most powerful rewards in all of Superstar.  These influence paths grant rating boosts and Abilities to your teammates, giving you a way to improve those around you. Suddenly, it becomes easier for you to make plays when your supporting cast is happy and firing on all cylinders.

Sphere of Influence - Other Characters

One of our goals in adding Sphere of Influence was to interject some “character” into the mode (pun intended).  We are thrilled to introduce characters, based on real-life archetypes, who you would not typically expect to find in Superstar. These characters are scattered about the experience, with some of them even a bit hidden. They all have a reward path with exclusive rewards, and of course they provide an opportunity to add to your Inner Circle modifier. For example, the Tattoo Artist can be unlocked in several different ways, and his reward path contains tattoos that you won’t find anywhere else.

We’d hate to spoil the fun and give you a list of all these characters, but we’ll tell you a little about the Sports Psychologist. Earning influence with her is a bit of a grind, but once you reach the top level, you are “in the zone!” This gives you max ratings for a game, vaulting you to a 99 OVR. After the game, the influence resets and you start the grind again.

Sphere of Influence characters add an entirely new aspect to the player-centric career experience. It’s collection, it’s balancing, and it’s a great way to earn meaningful power.

Sphere of Influence - Weekly Activities

You’re dominating on Sunday, but what does your life look like in between gamedays? The all-new Weekly Activity system lets you further define your story by choosing how you want to spend your free time every week. Fully integrated with Sphere of Influence, every choice you make has a meaningful impact on your relationships and in turn, your Superstar. Coaches, Teammates, and other characters in your Sphere of Influence will react to your decisions; sometimes positively and other times negatively. You can even unlock new Sphere of Influence characters by engaging in certain activities. Every choice comes with positive and negative outcomes to your Sphere of Influence. Do you host an autograph signing to earn kudos with your fan base? Or will you take your star receiver to dinner as you try to form a better connection with him? Your choices off the field will help forge your path to stardom. 

Your weekly set of choices are not just random or repetitive prompts, either. Each activity list is generated based on things you have done in your career. Managing Wear & Tear will be an important part of Weekly Activities as well, so you can stay at your physical peak as you enjoy a long career.

Game Day Beats

Throughout its history, Superstar Mode has never had a feature or system that dramatically impacted the in-game experience from week to week. While skills progression, narrative, training, and other supporting features have evolved, the core gameplay piece has remained largely similar. As NFL fans, we know that while the lead up to game day is a big part of the sport, the real action unfolds on the field. To this end, the dev team is committed to making Superstar more than a “menu mode” by fully integrating into gameplay.  

To make this happen, we are introducing a revolutionary new system called Game Day Beats. Every week will feel different. Every week will have a purpose. No longer will a game in Superstar Mode feel like just another date on the calendar. Each week will deliver a unique story, complete with dynamic gameplay and bespoke objectives from your coach. Are you a road underdog in the biggest game of your life, like the Commanders beating the Lions in the playoffs? Maybe you’re facing a high-pressure blitz scheme with your reliable Left Tackle missing due to injury. What about the challenge of a snow game in Buffalo, where you’ll need to change your entire gameplan to survive? Game Day Beats ramp up the stakes while personalizing every game. 

The key to this system is the organically generated themes based on the many variables of your league, opponent, and Superstar. The weekly Beat will make sense for your career, and no two league playthroughs will ever be the same. You can expect the same drama, excitement, and challenge that NFL players and fans experience every week. 

Every position has a unique set of Game Day Beats, with tailored objectives and modifiers that map to the role of the position. As your Chapters change, and your Superstar status evolves, you will see new Game Day Beats that you have never seen before. Even subtle storylines such as statistics, win streaks, and rivalries can trigger Game Day Beats. In all, there will be more than 500 different Game Day Beats at launch!

Here are just a few examples of some Game Day Beats:

• HOT POCKET - face a defense that relies on a relentless blitzing scheme. 
• SHOVELS OUT - a game played in heavy snow conditions.
• JET LAGGED - fight off the sluggishness of a cross-country road trip.
• UNDERDOGS - face a top team in a game you are expected to lose. 
• BREAK THE SLUMP - end a losing streak. 
• PUT IN WORK - you’re QB2 and getting a shot to play in the preseason.

Changing Gameplay in Superstar Mode

As stated earlier, one of our goals was to sunset the days of Superstar gameplay feeling repetitive. Our top goal was to bring the front-end feeling of narrative, fiction and achievement into the actual game.  Sphere of Influence, integrated with Game Day Beats, gives us several new ways to impact the game day experience:  

• Gameplay modifiers provide tangible challenges, such as beating a specific scheme, overcoming an injury, and adjusting to inclement weather. 
• Coach Objectives are predicated on the modifiers for that particular game, and your coach will ask you to do things that map to the challenge at hand.  These are NOT just random objectives, they are part of the organic challenge of that week.
• Earning influence with teammates and other characters will also impact the way you play on gameday. You may be faced with a decision to please your coach or build up your relationship with a teammate. Maybe you can even double up and win favor with both of them in a game.
• Introducing spot duty and shorter gameplay experiences in the backup role will also deliver a new way to play. Objectives will fit the shorter time windows, giving you a meaningful way to play when you’re earning your role. 

You can see how these core systems are all working toward the same goal of making gameplay different. It’s not just for the sake of difference, you will experience curated content that maps to the real stories and drama you see in the NFL.

Superstar Live

Madden NFL 26 is ringing in a new era of Superstar. We overhauled Live Events with new gameplay rules, new environments and exclusive new rewards. Showdown, the human-controlled 3-on-3 squad mode, gets even more competitive with the addition of Ranked Divisions. Form a squad and work your way up the leaderboard, earning seasonal rewards throughout the year. Limited Time Events will be released all year long, featuring new and challenging twists on football. Stay tuned for more details.

We’re also excited to announce the return of Online Mini Games! After a 16-year hiatus, competitive mini games are making a comeback in Superstar Live Events.  Grab your Superstar and compete against other Superstars in skill-based games to reign supreme over the online community, racking up exclusive rewards as you play. 

Lastly, Superstar the League will see new content releases throughout the year. Expect level cap increases, new Abilities, and even new Sphere of Influence characters. For the first time in its history, The League is truly a living game mode. Superstar in Madden NFL 26 is fixated on customization, choices mattering on and off the field, meaningful goals and objectives that lead to player-driven storytelling.

Thanks for sticking with us through this deep dive into Madden NFL 26’s Superstar Mode. As we celebrate 20 years of this player-centric experience, we want to take a moment to thank you for your continued passion, feedback, and support. Everything you’ve read today was built with one goal in mind: Deliver a richer, more immersive, and more meaningful career journey than ever before. From the moment you enter the league to the final chapter of your legacy, every decision, relationship and play shapes your story. We, the dev team, poured our hearts into transforming this mode and we can’t wait for you to get in, explore every path, discover every secret, and create a Superstar that’s truly your own. See you on the sticks!

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Madden NFL 26 launches worldwide on August 14, 2025. Pre-order the Madden NFL 26 Deluxe Edition and play early. Conditions and restrictions apply. See disclaimers for details. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Answers HQ.