The 30 best football games of all time to play during World Cup 2026

30) Footballer of the Year (1986, ZX Spectrum)

People weren’t sure what to make of this oddball at the time of release. Part management game, part board game, you aimed to take a kid from the old fourth division to the glory of cup finals and Division One.

Success was mostly down to scoring goals in arcade sequences. You bought chances with ‘goal cards’ purchased in-game. And ‘incident cards’ let you to delve further into your young player’s life. If this all sounds familiar, FOTY was later a big influence on New Star Soccer creator Simon Read…

29) Tracksuit Manager (1988, C64)

We’re not sure how you manage a tracksuit. Stupid name aside, this Goliath Games effort was an impressive management game with depth. You arrived just as your team (England by default) had a disastrous World Cup. So… pretty accurate. You then had to figure out a road to success.

Highlights were akin to the running commentary you’d today see on a news website. That lacked visual impact. But it did provide plenty of insight into who was delivering for your team – and who to send for an early bath.

28) International Soccer (1983, C64)

This C64 classic was the first truly great soccer game. Inspired by the earlier Intellivision Soccer, it utilised a side-on viewpoint. Two seven-a-side teams battled it out for a chunky, pixelated cup.

Andrew Spencer was not a fan of football. Yet he captured the feel of the sport and squeezed throw-ins, corners and goal-kicks into the cartridge’s tiny memory. It’s also the one football game where you can sometimes head a ball half the length of the field – a bug Spencer noticed but left in because he thought it was funny.

27) Match Day 2 (1987, ZX Spectrum)

Knowing a good thing when they saw it, Jon Ritman and Ocean teamed up for a sequel to Ritman’s original Spectrum smash hit. This time, the players looked like bodybuilders and the underlying mechanics were suitably beefed up. Along with a far superior deflection system, there was a league format, volleys, flicks and jumping.

Shot strength was determined by a slightly awkward oscillating ‘kickometer’ and the pace was again slow. But this merely made for more strategic play. At least, that’s what you told yourself when your player performed a backheel right in front of an open goal.

26) Behold the Kickmen (2017, Nintendo Switch/PC)

Look, we adore the beautiful game, but sometimes it feels like the sport takes itself a little bit too seriously. Watching a gaggle of shouty adults boot a ball around a field for 90 minutes is entertaining. But it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Behold the Kickmen was a reminder of that.

This was football as seen through the eyes of someone with absolutely zero interest in the laws and rules of the sport. Or physics, for that matter. Kicking, tackling, passing, shooting, and scoring. All that was there but dialled up to 11 in the most nonsensical way imaginable. In striving to make a complete mockery of football, developer Size Five Games created one of the most comical and outrageous takes on the sport we’ve ever encountered.

25) Actua Soccer (1995, PS1)

Its name and tagline was a shot across Sega’s bows. “There’s nothing virtual about Actua!”. But Gremlin Interactive’s title was noteworthy for more than just a bit of snide trollery. And that’s because it was the very first console football game to offer fully 3D players. Woo!

These were motion-capped from Sheffield Wednesday stalwarts Chris Woods, Andy Sinton and Graham Hyde. Today, these graphics look rough. Back then, they gave everyone a level of clogger realism never before witnessed on consoles. As for teams, the original only featured national ones. But the later Club Edition lobbed in 20 teams from the 96/97 Premier League season.

24) Ultimate Soccer Manager (1995, Amiga)

For all of Championship Manager’s statistical goodness, nothing immersed you in a mid-’90s football world like the USM series. Transfers and team selection almost became minor distractions as you reclined in your office next to a fax machine and Teletext.

There were advertising deals to negotiate, a stadium complex to build, and even bungs to offer the opposition. Yes, this was the George Graham era, when managers were unimpeachable emperors. USM put you right on the throne with a hotline to football’s dark side.

23) Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (2016, PS4/Xbox One)

Having spent years in FIFA’s shadow, Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 finally offered a genuine alternative to EA’s annual juggernaut. PES 2017 was a slower, more considered version of the beautiful game. It placed less emphasis on beating players for pace and more on patient build-up play.

Still, when everything fell into place and you unlocked a defence, the sense of satisfaction was glorious. Its lack of official licenses and a fundamentally flawed online mode still made it very hard to convince most FIFA fans to jump ship though. Things subsequently went backwards. But for one short year, PES’s glory days were back.

22) New Star Soccer (2012, iOS/Android)

How do you create an in-depth career-long football game for mobile devices? New Star Soccer suggested that you don’t. Instead, it served up a selection of mini-games draped over a basic framework that wasn’t a million miles from 1986’s Footballer Of The Year.

Although IAP-hungry, it became a mobile classic as you balanced a kind of hyper-real version of a young footballer’s life. Buy a car! And now a TANK! Score loads of goals. Don’t annoy the manager. Keep advertisers happy. Ensure your nagging partner is even happier.

21) Kick Off (1989, Amiga)

Dino Dini’s 16-bit classic added an ingredient that hadn’t really been seen before in football games: speed. Little players darted about the pitch as if dosed-up on something decidedly not allowed under FIFA’s code. The ball was initially impossible to control, given that it didn’t remain glued to your feet.

But once mastered, Kick Off made other football games seem dull and dated by comparison. That despite it feeling like the football game equivalent of juggling bars of soap while riding a unicycle down a hill.

20) World Cup 98 (1997, PS1)

EA’s FIFA series has ruled the football gaming world like some kind of digital Sepp Blatter. Well, before all the dodgy payments stuff. But it wasn’t always thus. Back in 1998 it was merely one of several games vying for the hearts and minds of floppy fringed teens. And it was far from the best.

The previous edition, 1997’s Road To World Cup 98, had marked a big improvement though. While FIFA had always had the official licences, it finally had the gameplay to go with them too. World Cup 98 built on that in some style, keeping the free-flowing football of the previous title and adding in-game tactical changes.

It was all wrapped up in a slick World Cup skin that no other game at the time came close to, complete with commentary and unlockable classic games. Shame we had to put up with Chumbawamba’s execrable Tubthumping every time it loaded though.

19) Football Manager (1982, ZX Spectrum)

Kevin Toms graced the front of Addictive’s Football Manager cover, enticing you to buy the game with his charm and beard. And what a game it was. On your little ZX Spectrum, you could buy and sell players, pick a team, and watch highlights on pitches with comically large goals.

Today, it all looks a bit primitive. (The C64 conversion was at least a bit prettier.) Yet its simple gameplay remains surprisingly compelling in an era of over-complicated (micro) management sims. If you fancy a go on your smartphone, check out Toms’s remakes for Android and iOS.

18) Tehkan World Cup (1985, arcade)

Tehkan World Cup wasn’t the first overhead football game. That accolade probably goes to Exciting Soccer. But it was the first to make the viewpoint work. It was a fast game, in part down to the trackball controls. And decent goalies also ensured that matches were frantic end-to-end battles.

The game very heavily influenced Sensible Software, and more or less came to the C64 in the form of Microprose Soccer. But its legacy was really being the grandfather to the outstanding Sensible Soccer series.

17) FIFA 10 (2009, PS3/Xbox 360)

Like a footballing version of Rocky Balboa vs Apollo Creed, the FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games slugged it out relentlessly throughout the ’00s without either landing a final knockout punch. Pro Evo was generally the better game. But FIFA retained a strong following by virtue of its proper team and player names and presentation nous. However, with FIFA 10 that winning uppercut finally connected.

Both games introduced 360-degree player control for the first time in their 2010 editions. FIFA 10 did it better, allowing you to expertly slide a pass through at just the right angle for your striker to run on to it. Or, more commonly, for you to expertly slide a pass straight to an opposition defender. Coupled with a wealth of game modes – from Be A Pro to Ultimate Team and Manager Mode – FIFA 10 was a more complete footballing experience than any previous title in the series and finally edged ahead of its rival too. In that regard, it hasn’t been toppled since.

16) Mario Strikers Charged (Wii, 2007)

As you’d expect, the big N’s take on the beautiful game would give FIFA officials heart palpitations. The rules are barely more than a suggestion as matches rapidly descend into eye-popping, action-packed chaos.

One moment, you’re lining up a certain goal. The next, some idiot launches a colossal turtle shell your way. Meanwhile, Yoshi has transformed himself into a giant egg and is busy squishing half the opposing team. It’s enough to make you yell “THAT’S NOT CRICKET!” before remembering you’re playing football.

It’s great stuff if you like your footie games gloriously unhinged, with lashings of cartoon violence. Also solid: Mario Strikers: Battle League Review on Switch.

15) Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988, C64)

A spiritual successor to Andrew Spencer’s International Soccer, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer was the last great side-on football game of the 1980s. It was brimming with options. Advanced players could utilise techniques such as ‘5-direction’ passing, sliding tackles and backheels. And all that from a joystick with only a single fire button.

The result was the first truly fluid football game, where you could string together some genuinely breathtaking moves. The goalies were still rubbish, though.

14) Retro Goal (2021, Android/iOS)

Retro Goal was by the New Star Soccer folks – and was a similar fusion of management and action. But rather than veering towards management, it mostly took place on the pitch. Instead of full games, you played out highlights, using gestural controls (with the aid of Matrix-style slo-mo) to bury the ball in the back of the net.

There were grumbles that the game was play to win. However, it wasn’t really the video game equivalent of Manchester City. All you needed was a bit of patience. And also the nous to seriously power up a couple of strikers so they had some serious welly.

13) FIFA Street (2005, PS2)

There’s something beautifully nostalgic about FIFA Street. If you played the 4-a-side street football game in 2005, the game may conjure up memories of committing devastating flicks and tricks in favelas and English football pitches. It also came with a soundtrack that has seldom been beaten since. This brought the local sounds of soca, grime, jungle and more to global players.

FIFA Street’s most recent form, the Rush mode in FC 26, hasn’t managed to live up to the heights of the original. But that’s a tough ask. Because even when playing today, FIFA Street still impresses. Few things beat the feeling of nutmegging Ronaldinho before firing a screamer into the top bins, after all.

12) Virtua Striker (1994, Arcade)

Sega’s legendary AM2 team (also responsible for Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter) developed this groundbreaking title – the first football video game in history to use 3D player models. Being available only in arcades, Virtua Striker was designed for fast and furious action over serious simulation. But for those of us who crammed countless coins into the cabinet, it was the most realistic digital appropriation of the beautiful game we’d ever seen.

11) Super Arcade Football (2021, PC, Switch, iOS, Android)

Watch the tiny players scooting about the pitch, doinking the ball about in what appears to be a mash-up of football and pinball and your Sensible Soccer alarm might start blaring. Which is fair, because this game does look and play an awful lot like that stone-cold classic.

Of course, it isn’t Sensi, much in the same way Reading FC isn’t Manchester City. But especially on mobile, Super Arcade Football puts in a strong performance, and is arguably the most playable and entertaining football game you’ll find on a phone. That it’s packed with features and not in-app purchases seals its bid for promotion.

10) International Superstar Soccer (1994, SNES)

In hindsight, this SNES classic is a bridge between classic-era side-on fare and modern football titles. A predecessor to PES, the original ISS offered a stunning array of moves – everything from feints to shoulder charges – when various buttons were combined.

Visually, it was also leagues beyond the likes of Match Day and International Soccer. Yet for all its gloss and cleverness, what made ISS appeal most was its fun and frantic nature. It retained a very arcade sensibility. A last glimmer of all-in fun before sports titles became obsessed with a kind of TV-style realism.

9) Football Manager 2011 (2010, PC)

In its divorce with Eidos, Sports Interactive lost the Championship Manager name but carried on creating the only management games still worth playing. This edition is one of the greatest. It added a full 3D engine that, if you were so inclined, allowed you to watch every single pass, shot, tackle and horrendous goalkeeping error in a match.

Among the other innovations were press conferences – a small detail that served to add colour to an already frighteningly real football universe that featured no fewer than 117 playable leagues.

8) Kick Off 2 (1990, Amiga)

Kick Off 2 looked an awful lot like its predecessor, and it was really a combination of Kick Off and a couple of expansion disks, all carefully refined. But that attention to detail transformed an enjoyable but occasionally uncontrollable knockabout title into a product that demanded a lot more skill.

Along with tournaments, refs with varying moods and – crucially – fewer bugs, this Amiga sequel dropped the pace and boosted the controls. Copious use of ‘aftertouch’ enabled you to fashion the kind of dazzlingly audacious shots of which even David Beckham would have been proud.

7) Nintendo Switch Sports (Switch, 2022)

This was really a multi-sport collection that borrowed heavily from the fondly-remembered Wii Sports. In other words, you waved your arms about in a frenzy (while clutching controllers, natch) in a desperate attempt to guide your on-screen avatar to sporting glory. Sometimes, they even did what you intended.

Of the bundled sports, football was one of the standouts (the other being bowling). You got a free-form four-a-side affair, with exaggerated physics and comically oversized goals. Most importantly, it was breezy fun, especially against other folks online. It still is. Although that mode is now on borrowed time, given the that the Switch is heading into the sunset like a veteran player nursing a dodgy knee.

6) Sensible Soccer (1992, Amiga)

Sensible Software were fans of Kick Off 2 and football. But they were irritated by the former’s shortcomings that didn’t – as they saw it – do justice to the latter. Sensible Soccer was their attempt to bring to gaming the feeling of how you imagined playing professional football would be. This was coupled with the kind of attention to detail only a true football geek possesses, such as correct hair and skin colour for each player.

The game zoomed the viewpoint out, showing more of the pitch and enabling it to dispense with a Kick Off-style radar. Passing and shooting was simplified and streamlined. Everything was done on the frame, making the game extremely responsive. Until sequel SWOS arrived, this was the pinnacle of the genre.

5) ISS Pro Evolution (1999, PS1)

Ah, the Master League: just how many hours have we spent cocooned in your comforting embrace, steadily building up a team of honest pros and turning them into world beaters? Probably several thousand – and that’s no exaggeration. And it was here that it first appeared.

Although at this stage a relatively basic affair, the Pro Evo Master League still bolted a decent career sim on to an already superb football game. You could buy and sell players, but you used points earned by winning games, rather than money, and there was none of the complicated day-to-day running of the club that you’d have to endure in Championship Manager. Instead, it gave you the chance to shape the team of your dreams, packing it with attacking midfielders if you chose, or instead making sure you had a Mourinho-solid defence.

While the Master League was a great addition to the series, it would have meant nothing if the gameplay hadn’t matched up to it. But ISS Pro Evolution was already creeping ahead of FIFA by this time. It was more realistic and more playable. That’s a winning combination in any game.

4) Championship Manager: Season 97/98 (1997, PC)

Sports Interactive’s series looms like a Colossus over all management games.

Despite being derided by small-minded dullards as a glorified Excel spreadsheet, Championship Manager’s masterful tactical engine, reams of accurate data (this was the first instalment allowing you to run more than one league simultaneously) and giant player database wove together a rich, convincing football universe that sat parallel to our own. It fired the imagination like no other game around.

And it was so, so addictive. The game’s official forums were full of tales of lives all but lost to Champ’s particular brand of ‘just one more game’-itis. And of grown men so proud of taking a lower league team to the FA Cup final that they would don a suit for the occasion.

3) EA Sports FC 26 (2026, PS5/Xbox Series S/X)

EA left the FIFA name behind in 2023 after falling out with football’s governing body over cash (what else?), but it doesn’t seem to have done the series any harm. 

FC 26 certainly isn’t perfect, but it is disgustingly addictive. The new offline Authentic mode offers a more sim-like experience. But it’s the high-scoring world of Ultimate Team that keeps people coming back year after year. 

Games are played at a pace that would exhaust a real-life footballer after about half an hour. And there’s a disconcerting number of dweebs online who have learned how to do all the silly skill moves. But when you put together a slick passing move that scythes through their defence and ends in a goal, you’ll feel like England/Scotland/Curaçao (delete as applicable) have just won the World Cup.

2) Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (2005, PS2)

In popular culture, there are times when something peaks and you think it can’t possibly stay there. But then it does – for years. Pro Evolution Soccer remained unsurpassed during its glory years from 2002–2005. We could have picked any of the games from Pro Evo 2 to Pro Evo 5 and made a case for its inclusion. Or included them all, but that would be silly.

So 5 gets the nod because… everything. The Master League had developed into a proper four-division set-up, with promotion, relegation and a Champions League equivalent. There were – finally – proper player names. Play was as fluid as football games get. Not quite as frantically insane as Sensible Soccer or as gloriously detailed as FIFA, true. But a wonderful mid-point between those two extremes.

You could score screamers from 40 yards or tap-ins after a goalmouth scramble. You could waltz through five tackles, if you had a skilful enough player. But you couldn’t get away with just running the ball into the net. In short, it was beautifully balanced.

It couldn’t last – but boy was it fun while it did.

1) Sensible World Of Soccer (1994, Amiga)

Now more than 30 years young, SWOS is still top of the league. It took everything that was great about Sensible Soccer and just ran with it. You got the same fantastic arcade-oriented gameplay. But this take comprehensively acknowledged the rest of the world’s existence. And all with the kind of slavish devotion of a true footballing aficionado.

Management features and player trading were boosted by the inclusion of a whopping 1,500 teams and 27,000 players. It should have been the start of something great, but SWOS was somehow allowed to be eclipsed by FIFA and PES. Still, dedicated fans keep the flame alive with leagues, events, and patched versions of the game that incorporate modern data.

Can it compete with FIFA for realistic gameplay or Football Manager for exhaustive statdom? Obviously not. And for many people, the classic mid-’00s era Pro Evo beats it as an all-round football game. It’s definitely split the Stuff team at any rate.

But for sheer JUST LOOK AT THAT GOAL! THAT WAS LIQUID FOOTBALL! joy, it will never be bettered. So go on, then… just one more game.

Additional words: Sam Kieldsen, Marc McLaren, Mark Wilson, Tom Wiggins