Football Manager 26's Steam score makes Mindseye's look good, and it's really sad to see

When it comes to the most addictive, all-consuming videogame series ever made, Football Manager is right up there. Soccer fans like myself have sunk hundreds of hours into the annually released simulation games, but the community was stunned to learn that last year's entry was being scrapped. Largely due to the scale of its ambition, with UI overhauls, visual upgrades, and an engine switch, that work would instead be funneled into Football Manager 26 - a fresh start and a new era for Sega and Sports Interactive. Hopes were high, given the extended amount of time fans have had to wait. However, following its release yesterday, November 4, the game has been absolutely torn to shreds. I had my doubts about FM26, but I certainly didn't think I'd be writing about it becoming one of this year's worst-rated games on Steam.

If you were to glance at Football Manager 26's player count on Steam, all would seem fairly rosy. Its launch peak of around 85,000 players is roughly what you'd expect for a new entry in the series, compared to past releases. At the time of writing, over 50,000 of you are scouting wonderkids and tinkering with formations, and that's just on Valve's platform. However, its user reviews tell a markedly different story.

With over 2,000 English language reviews posted already - some reactionary, but some also resulting from pre-release access and dozens of hours of playtime already - Football Manager 26 sits on an incomprehensibly low Steam user score of 22%. That puts it in the 'mostly negative' category, somewhere no new game wants to be, especially one that's been billed as a new dawn for an iconic series. There's a fairly wide range of complaints here, but if I had to condense fans' frustrations into two main areas of concern, it's with the 'unfinished' state of the game and FM26's new UI.

There are plenty of reports of bugs, crashes, and performance issues, and frustration at missing features like heat maps and international management that were present in previous games. One user describes it as "a beta for FM27." Ooft. The UI though, seems to be the biggest issue. Totally rebuilt due to the game engine switching to Unity, players really aren't gelling with it, and in a game so menu-driven, that's a huge concern.

After having looked across a couple of Steam data aggregators, the scale of Football Manager 26's disaster becomes even more evident. Even though the user score data these sites pull doesn't totally align with what you see on Steam's front end, they get pretty close and certainly paint a picture. In terms of newly released games in 2025, that have attracted at least 50 user reviews, it is the second-worst game of the year, according to SteamDB. Even the maligned Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond (review bombed for its microtransactions and sitting on 36%) or the huge flop that was Mindseye (a lifetime score of 45%) currently fare better.

This is immensely disappointing for Sega and Sports Interactive, especially given the hit it took last year with FM 2025's cancelation. Updates will no doubt arrive to soothe concerns - especially in the bugs and performance department - but the initial response from fans is pretty shocking.

If you're also struggling with FM 26, check out some alternatives in our best soccer games guide, or test your tactical nouse in some of the best strategy games for PC players.