Football Manager 26 is off to a rough start, in reality, logging the lowest active player numbers on Steam that the franchise has ever seen in over a decade. Totals dip to levels unseen since 2017, and it’s not just a fluke.
Player Count Breakdown
A Reddit user highlighted this statistic, and SteamCharts data backs the claim. As of early February 2026, FM26 has been down to about 32,000 daily players over the last month. That’s a steep fall from its launch day high of nearly 85,000 just back in November. The average held just above 33,000 through December and January, but every week, the trend keeps sliding downwards. Even the 24hr peaks barely touch 50,000 now.
If you stack FM26 next to FM23 or FM24, the picture gets worse. From day one, FM26 lost players faster than any of its previous titles ever have. 17 weeks in, it’s the weakest since FM15 or earlier, skipping unreliable data from when Steam first got the series with FM12. Across all versions and releases, total Football Manager players haven’t sunk this low since FM17, which is nearly a decade old at this point.
If the Football Manager series is known for anything, it’s player retention. So why hasn’t FM26 been able to maintain the attention of its niche (but dedicated) fan base? Well, the reviews pretty much spell it out.
Review Backlash
The reviews are just as ugly. On Steam, FM26 sits with an “Overwhelmingly Negative.” Players have been complaining since day one, and even while devs continue working towards updates, the player base doesn’t seem to hold up. People still complain about the Match Engine being unreliable, glitchy AI, and missing features.
Sports Interactive and SEGA launched FM26 on November 4, 2025, promising deeper tactics, real-world data, and true-to-life pyramid leagues. But the buggy launch made things worse, and even with patches rolling out, players hesitate to stick around.
The series usually holds steady post-launch. There’s a bump over the holidays and January surges, that’s normal. But this time, FM26 actually dropped 23% player base from November to December, and that’s alarming. Sure, console and Epic Games players might help the overall numbers, but Steam paints a realistic picture of what’s happening.
