Football Manager fans finally have some hopeful news to look forward to as the developers just dropped a big hint about the next major update.
FM26 is going to get an update in the week of December 8, with a Steam Public Beta starting sometime next week. According to their official communication, this update will include significant Match Engine upgrades, data changes, and a large number of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
That news has stirred hopes among long-time fans, especially those who stuck around despite the issues.
What’s Coming, And What Players Want To See Gone
In short, this update seems to be dropping down on performance and polish. Recent public-beta builds have already rolled out over 200 fixes, including stability improvements, smoother navigation, menu, and UI refinements. Despite the still prevalent gameplay issues, the performance, at least, is much better than at launch.
Fans are already familiar with FM26’s rocky launch. From crashes, bugs, to awkward UI and overall poor match-engine behavior, it was an awful experience. The recent updates have brought the game to a much stable state now. Several players say issues that frustrated them most, like mid-game stutters or lengthy loading times, have improved with the 26.0.6 hotfix.
But we are still far from the finish line. Although the game performs much better and many bugs have been fixed, there are still persistent bugs around wage demands, player negotiations, and tactical consistency, including formation breakdowns and unrealistic player behavior.
The recent updates didn’t target gameplay specifically; they primarily focused on stability and optimization. The coming update promises Match Engine improvements, which have got fans excited. They hope the next update will address the core gameplay mechanics, and not just UI and performance.
If this new build hits as promised, FM26 could see a major turnaround, but many in the community say it’s time for the developers to deliver more than just polish. They want Football Manager to go back to how it used to be, total simulation fun.
