Football – or soccer, depending on where you’re from – is far and away the most popular sport in the world. So it’s no surprise that when it comes to video games, football is heavily represented with numerous titles spanning across all gaming platforms.
You don’t have to be a fan of the beautiful game to enjoy playing football on your console, PC, or mobile, as many games feature other elements to appeal to a broader range of gamers. But with so many games out there, and with as many football fans looking for the best gaming snack, it can be overwhelming and difficult to find the best. Whether you like management games, straight-up action, or football with a twist, you’re sure to find one to suit you listed below. Let’s take a look.
FIFA
For many gamers, football games start and finish with the FIFA series. Launched way back in 1993 across all contemporary consoles and PC platforms, FIFA took the world by storm thanks to its isometric viewpoint gameplay and – for the time – advanced graphics.
Since then, it has continued to develop, with FIFA 21 hitting the shelves offering sublime graphics, intricate control systems for immersive gameplay, and different game modes, career mode being the most popular. What is more, FIFA is available across all traditional gaming and mobile platforms.
Pro Evolution Soccer
Pro Evolution Soccer launched in 2001, based on the Japanese game series J.League Jikkyou Winning Eleven.
Since then, it has risen in popularity to rival FIFA, with realistic gameplay – many argue more realistic than FIFA – a vast array of licensed leagues, and other competitions to play in, and a great online multiplayer mode.
Football Manager
From its emergence in 1992, (then known as Championship Manager) this is the most popular football management simulation game out there.
Players of the 2021 version can oversee squads from 117 leagues covering 52 nations across five continents: Africa, Asia (including Australia), Europe, North America, and South America. Cutting-edge data analysis and other features such as gesture control and media interaction take the gameplay to ever more detailed levels.
Football, Tactics & Glory
This PC game is a management sim, turn-based strategy and RPG rolled into one.
Create a football team and manage them through the seasons. You control every action of every player on the field – which may sound strange and a bit tedious but is anything but. As well as that, it’s all about building your team. You’ll have to make tough decisions, learn new skills, upgrade your facilities and of course, buy and sell players on your journey to the top. Football, Tactics & Glory runs on PC – it’s available to try as a demo on Steam.
FootLOL: Epic Fail League
This game is great fun for those who hate football, or footy fans with a sense of humor. A kind of mixture between a (very) budget side-on football game and a chaotic, explosion-filled game like Worms.
You can unleash various forces on the field and make a right mess. Landmines, warplanes, oversized cows, even marauding aliens – anything goes. A little expensive at ten pounds, considering how long it’s been on the market, but for laughs and hijinks on the football field, it doesn’t get much better.
Super Arcade Football
A retro game that will sate the appetites of those who love classic football games such as Sensible Soccer, Kick Off, and MicroProse Soccer. Fast-paced overhead action, intensely playable and with the old school banana curling shot technique, as well as fun features such as bouncy walls and slippery pitches.
The game is constantly being developed as well, meaning more features and ever-improving gameplay. Great fun solo or with an opponent.
Football-Related Casino & Lottery Games
Aside from classic video games, online casinos and sports betting are big business, drawing in players who may never have set foot in a real brick-and-mortar gambling house.
Aside from table games like poker and blackjack, or roulette wheel, casino providers offer dozens of slots games and sports betting options, where football-related games are among the most popular topics.
Football slots
Slot games are the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions casinos. And with the rise of internet casinos, online game developers have worked in a variety of themes for slots, where football-related ones are increasingly popular, with different levels, video incorporation, and cutting-edge graphics. They go so far that now you can even find games like FIFA slot machines, Champions Cup Slots, or Football World Cup Slots.
Sportstakes
Away from slot games, there are a host of options that take into account the popularity of online sports betting. Sportstakes are one such option, and it is taking Africa by storm.
There are two typical types of this betting game – Sportstake 8 and Sportstake 13 where the punter’s goal is to predict the results of 8 or 13 fixtures (depending on a variant) from leagues around the world, including the big European leagues – Bundesliga, EPL, La Liga, and Serie A.
Unlike Sportstake 8, where you need to predict both the first and the second-half outcome of the game to gather prizes, betting in Sportstake 13 is a bit more straightforward, but players can always get more sportstake 13 tips at PlayCasino, and brush up their strategies.
A fixture list is published twice a week: one on a Sunday showing the midweek games and one on a Thursday for the weekend fixtures. In this game, if you predict the results of 10 fixtures correctly you will win a prize, while 13 correct results will get you the top prize.
So there you have it, a taste of some of the best football-related games on the market, and plenty that exist outside the tried and tested template of player/manager simulation.