Another year of sports games is in the books, and discerning sports video gamers who have held back on buying now have a few months of each in players’ hands to guide them. With this guide, we’re looking at the latest release in three of the biggest sports video game series to look at whether they are worth picking up in two circumstances:
First, how does the game appeal to a fan of the sport looking for a video game to keep scratching that itch, and second, how old does your latest edition of the series have to be before we’d recommend investing in the new release?
NBA 2K26
The NBA 2K series is arguably the annual sports franchise that carries the highest standards into each new edition in the modern sports gaming landscape. While not without its criticisms for the extreme monetization that takes over nearly every mode, on a gameplay level, 2K has generally held high standards, and those remain in NBA 2K26.
If you’re picking this up as a new player or one who has not played the game in quite some time and are entering expecting to need to learn from the ground up, the game does not do a good job of hand-holding you through the process, but the game you’ll learn as you play is a fun one. As a basketball simulation, NBA 2K26 is quite simply fun to play. Full-sided or half-court online, 2K26 is a fun game that feels good.
If you’re an experienced 2K player, things get more complicated. If you’re an online player, 2K does its job and offers more gameplay options than most other sports games. If you’re offline only, there’s less of a reason to look at the experience of a franchise mode run as one you need to upgrade for, especially if you’ll just be using a MyEras starting point anyhow.
Verdict
If you follow the real sport: Play it. Sports franchise monopolies have rarely been to the benefit of gamers, as the lack of competition can allow for some laziness to set in; however, this latest edition of 2K is a strong contender among its peers for the best release this cycle, while the MyEras franchise mode remains the biggest bone thrown to real-world fans in any sports series.
Play it if you haven’t bought a 2K game since: NBA 2K22. As we recommended last year, if your concern is whether there is enough new content for you in this edition, the cutoff for switching to the latest edition remains the same. The MyEras mode remains one of the coolest game modes in sports games, allowing you to play a franchise mode with real rosters and draft classes through the years, and debuted with NBA 2K23. If you don’t have a 2K with it and are looking for offline fun, it’s a must-have upgrade.
Madden 26
One of the two big juggernauts in EA’s catalog, the American version of football remains a massive draw for sports video gamers, and the developer’s lockdown on the NFL license remains in place. Where competition instead comes for Madden games is from within, in the form of College Football 26. Gamers may only have one option for an NFL game this year, but not for a football game in general.
On the sales charts, it was the college game winning out, perhaps buoyed by being in just its second iteration after a long break, making it feel fresh. If you’re looking for a football game, it’s one or the other, and if you think you’ll enjoy a college setting, it’s the winning option this year. That means that Madden 26 needs to earn its place on the buy list with actual improvements, of which there are a few.
Verdict
If you follow the real sport: Play it, if you’ve got the money to spare. This has been a relatively strong year for annual sports games as far as playability goes, which means even with the tepid endorsement, we had a good enough time with Madden 26 to recommend it as a fun football simulation. If you like the NFL and don’t have a modern football game in your collection to scratch the itch the next time you want to play football, you’ll have a good time on the sticks with the latest Madden.
Play it if you haven’t bought a Madden game since, especially if you like offline franchise modes. If you’re playing sports games for online modes, then your annual purchases are a bit more locked in, but for offline players, Madden can actually make a strong case for being worth jumping into to try out the new game. The Wear and Tear system provides a fun new consideration for your franchise management, and there’s enough to the mode to feel worth a fresh start if you’ve been looking for a new challenge with your long-play franchises.
EA FC 26
EA’s other football powerhouse, EA FC, has faced similar criticisms since losing its competitors and securing a full monopoly on the genre. There were bigger swings taken to attempt to respond to player complaints with EA FC 26, such as the implementation of two modes to attempt to cater to both hardcore competitive players and casual gamers just looking for some soccer fun.
One benefit EA FC has in its favor when it comes to countering “just a roster update” is the significant amount of roster updating that can occur when you’re covering multiple leagues from dozens of nations around the world. If you’ve not grabbed a new edition in some years, it can be worth it just to bring players over to the leagues you’re used to seeing them.
Verdict
If you follow the real sport: Don’t Play it. There is fun to be had in this game even as a casual player, but we found that it was less appealing to serious football fans than casual ones. While the two game modes allow for some tweaking, EA FC is still a game that plays more arcade-like than the real sport.
Play it if you haven’t bought an EA FC game since: It was called FIFA. The unfortunate reality is that since EA lost even the hint of competition from Pro Evolution Soccer, the series has stagnated in its offline gameplay as Ultimate Team took more and more of the focus. At the end of the day, if the out-of-date rosters on your last-bought game don’t bother you, then you can save your cash for another cycle and play your older game or, if it’s been long enough, even check out the used games rack to see about getting one a few years old for a fraction of the cost.
