Nearly two months after its release, EA Sports FC 27 is following a player decline on Steam that looks remarkably similar to last year's EA Sports FC 26. Despite taking different approaches to post-launch gameplay updates, EA appears to be facing much the same situation when it comes to retaining players during the opening months of the football season.
FC 26 started with around 100,000 concurrent players on Steam before dropping to approximately 55,000 by November 10, 2025. FC 27 has followed a comparable trajectory, going from an all-time peak of around 96,000 players in October to a 24-hour peak of roughly 47,000 in November. Both games have therefore lost close to half of their peak concurrent player numbers over a similar period.
π Different Approaches, Similar Results
π οΈ Updates
One of the most significant differences between the two releases was EA's approach to gameplay updates. With FC 26, EA began adjusting gameplay relatively early, introducing changes to defending and other mechanics in its October updates. This year, the developer took a more cautious approach with FC 27, deliberately giving players more time to adapt to the new gameplay before making significant adjustments. EA explained that decision in its FC 27 developer notes, confirming that its first set of gameplay balance changes would arrive in the November Title Update, almost two months after launch. The update began rolling out on November 10.
π Power Curve
EA has also made other significant changes in FC 27, particularly to Pack Weight and Evolutions. Pack weight has been extremely low, with some players reporting they still haven't packed a single promo player since the game launched. At the same time, Evolutions have been increasingly restricted and nerfed, making it harder to upgrade lower-rated players into competitive alternatives. These decisions may have helped EA generate more revenue through FC Points sales by making desirable players harder to obtain through packs. However, from a player retention perspective, the strategy does not appear to have delivered a different result. By keeping pack rewards scarce and limiting the impact of Evolutions, EA has also slowed down the power curve, reducing the opportunities for players to build and improve their squads at their own pace. Rather than creating a stronger incentive to keep playing, these changes may have contributed to the same retention problem seen in previous editions.
So far, EA's different approaches to gameplay updates, pack weight and Evolutions have not resulted in a significantly different player retention trend compared to FC 26. However, it will be interesting to see whether this changes in the short term, particularly with the release of Grand Theft Auto VI. Could the additional competition for players' time lead to a steeper decline in FC 27's concurrent player numbers than the one recorded by FC 26?
FC 27 also currently has a Mixed rating on Steam, with approximately 48% positive reviews out of nearly 14,000 submissions. While these figures only represent Steam users and cannot reflect the entire player base across PC and consoles, they provide another indication of the reception surrounding this year's release.