The 2026 FIFA World Cup is in the knockout stage. The United States just edged out Group D and faces Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1. Mexico topped Group A and meets Egypt in Mexico City. Canada, hosts alongside Mexico and the US, is still in it. The real tournament is exactly as chaotic and exciting as a 48-team World Cup in North America sounds.
EA FC 26 wants you to play it, too. Just not under the name "FIFA World Cup."
The Split That Changed Everything
After the 2022 Qatar tournament, EA Sports and FIFA ended a 30-year licensing deal that had defined football gaming. The falling-out was not subtle: FIFA wanted more money and more control over how the game was branded and monetized. EA wanted to keep building its own product on its own terms. They walked in different directions, EA renamed the series to EA Sports FC, and FIFA went off to license its name to other developers.
The result is a strange situation: EA Sports makes the biggest and most played football game in the world, but it cannot call any World Cup mode by the official tournament name. So it named the update The World's Game, dropped it on June 4 as a free addition to EA FC 26, and let the timing do the talking.
What "The World's Game" Actually Includes
This matters because the licensing gap is more cosmetic than functional.
| What's in | What's out |
|---|---|
| 48 fully playable nations | Official FIFA World Cup branding |
| Real qualified squads (41 of 48 actual 2026 teams) | The World Cup trophy (replaced with a generic equivalent) |
| Licensed stadiums including Gillette and BMO Field | FIFA logo anywhere in the game |
| Full 48-team bracket mirroring the real format | Five nations using generic kits (Algeria, Curacao, Iran, Iraq, Jordan) |
| Free 93-rated Icon Pele card (June 5 to July 24) |
The mode follows the actual World Cup structure: group stage, Round of 32, quarterfinals, semifinals, the final. You pick a nation and run the whole thing. The real stadiums are there. The authentic player squads are there. What is missing is the logo and the trophy shape, which are things you stop noticing after the first five minutes.
The Pele Card Is a Real Incentive
The Festival of Football FUT event wraps around the mode and runs until July 24. The headline offer: a free 93-rated Icon Pele card, available to anyone who logs into EA FC 26 between June 5 and July 24. No purchase required.
Beyond that, the update brings:
- Live player items that upgrade as their real-world teams advance in the actual tournament. Win a quarterfinal in real life, get a boosted card in FUT.
- Five promotional events running across the six weeks: Path to Glory, Greats of the Game, Glory Hunters, Phenoms, and Summer Stars.
- Over 100 new international player items added to the mode's content pool.
The live item angle is the cleverest part. It creates a feedback loop between watching the real tournament and playing the virtual one: every time England or Argentina or Brazil wins a match, relevant cards get better in your FUT squad. It turns match results into game mechanics.
Why This Timing Matters
Playing a football game alongside a live major tournament is a specific kind of gaming memory, and it does not last forever. The Festival of Football ends July 24, roughly when the real tournament wraps up. The live items stop updating when the real teams stop playing. The convergence between the virtual bracket and the real one is a six-week window.
That window is open right now.
If you are someone who cares about logging what you play and why, this is the kind of session that deserves a record. Not just "played EA FC 26 in the summer of 2026," but the specific nation you ran, the bracket path you took, how your virtual run compared to the real one. Those details are what makes a gaming memory actually yours.
The Gaming Memories pillar on The EndWiki blog covers exactly this: why logging the specific context of a gaming session matters, and how to build a play history that you can actually look back on.
The EndWiki is where you put it all in one place. Browse the game catalog to find EA FC 26, log your sessions with the World Cup mode, and write a review when the tournament ends. Your World Cup summer should have a record. Create your free account at The EndWiki and start building it.
The real World Cup ends in July. The virtual one ends the same day. Both are happening right now.
Source: EA Sports FC 26 'World Cup' Mode: Guide to the World's Game Edition, GiveMeSport (June 5, 2026)