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.