Few sports can match the global appeal of football – or soccer – as it’s known in the States. Games Like FIFA 21 are very popular all over the world. According to the sport’s governing body, there are approximately 250 million players worldwide. Indeed, FIFA 20 was one of the top-selling video games across America this year as the public sought home-based entertainment.
The next installment, FIFA 21, is due for release in early October on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The new version promises a serious upgrade on Career Mode, which allows users to simulate the experience of managing a team and taking control of key phases during games.
Soccer simulation games are a huge part of the industry, too, with millions of dedicated armchair managers. So, if you’re already a FIFA fan, here’s a look at other games within the soccer genre.
Games Like FIFA 21
Football Manager
The 2019 edition of Football Manager sold over 2 million copies, and the franchise is well past 18 million sales since rebranding in 2014. More leagues have been added to recent versions, helping grow the interest in territories where soccer hasn’t always been so popular. FM 2020 has 119 playable divisions. Players can now also manage as MLS or A-League clubs, both of which are fully licensed leagues in the game.
For example, in Australia, where bookmakers that accept POLi deposits betting sites are huge, brands like bet365 and Unibet offer customers a live streaming service for international soccer tournaments,
Pro Evolution Soccer
Developed by Konami, Pro Evolution Soccer is the biggest rival to the FIFA franchise. The two could barely be split at the turn of the millennium and sold similar numbers until the introduction of Ultimate Team in FIFA 09. The squad building feature proved a genuine, unique selling point for the EA franchise, and since then, it’s been one-way traffic for the market leader, especially with the proliferation of online gaming.
Regardless, there are still millions of soccer fans that enjoy PES every season. Although that makes it tougher to play as a newcomer, the Pro Evolution games are known for better gameplay.
Football, Tactics & Glory
If you want to bring an RPG to feel to your soccer simulation experience, then Football, Tactics & Glory is for you. You will take charge of a team in the bottom tier of your chosen country and work your way up through the divisions. You can download user-made modifications to replicate real-life teams, but you’ll always start at the bottom of the pyramid.
When it comes to game time, it’s not as fast-flowing as some of the best RPGs, but there’s plenty of strategy at play.
Madden NFL 21
Madden NFL is based on the National Football League. This video game is developed and published by Electronic Arts and has a dedicated following. The Madden NFL series has been running for a long time, and it’s named after the famous coach and commentator John Madden.
The cover of Madden NFL 21 is Lamar Jackson, the quarterback of Baltimore Ravens. The game also has the latest music from recent artists on the soundtrack, such as Anderson Paak, Smino and Denzel Curry.
eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE
The 2021 version is just a season update of the 2020 PES. You get incredible graphics for a very realistic game of eFootball. With the Standard Edition of the season update, you get lots of content for MyClub. This includes a ten-week player contract ticket for three players, a premium agent for ten weeks, and 2000 MyClub coins.
MyClub is where you can create your own dream team by using your knowledge of the strengths of different players in different leagues: to make an unstoppable team that can face any match.
Serious Fun Football
One look at the bobble-headed players — and no one can blame for bursting into laughter tears. Serious Fun Football looks like it’s made as a fun cartoon version, but here’s where the serious comes in. The gameplay is actually pretty challenging, so don’t take this game too lightly if you want to play well! With the physics of a real ball and fast-paced player movement, you’ll be surprised! While playing, you can either control one player or three at the same time: and not all players are the same. You can feel the difference while playing different players since they all have varied skills and attributes.
Ball 3D: Soccer Online
The world of Ball 3D is multiplayer, and everyone here competes. You get to control one player (either a disk or a car or something else) and run after the ball to get it. From then on, you dribble it slow or fast and kick it as high or low as you want. Getting the hang of the ball maneuvers takes a bit of time, but once you master it gets really fun. You have a lot of control over the ball… provided you’re able to steal it from your fellow players.
The ball has very realistic physics movement which definitely adds to the gaming experience. The entire game happens from a third-person perspective.
Head Goal: Soccer Online
If you like both soccer and volleyball, you don’t have to choose between both games in a video games. Head Goal: Soccer Online combines the best of both games for a unique gaming experience. You can play this unique game in 8 attractive different stadiums. It is a fast-paced addictive game, with the aim being to score a head goal. All the balls have realistic physics mechanisms.
You can replay your best goals to understand what you did well or just gloat over your success!
Ball 2D: Soccer Online
Sometimes it’s nice to dial down the good graphics. After all, who cares about how the graphic turf glints in the sun or how the animated characters cheer in the stadium crowds? That’s just fluff, and what really matters is the gameplay itself. If these sentiments match yours, you’d probably appreciate Ball 2D: Soccer Online. The game is stripped down to its bare essentials: reflex and tactics.
Zero-G
Zero-G is incredibly unique game has a new concept that you wouldn’t have come across. This is a futuristic sports game that’s based in space (hence the name, Zero Gravity). You can play the sport either in a 1-3 player cooperative campaign with a shared screen, or participate in multiplayer 2-6 player competitive matches.
This game is not only cool to explore on your own with its innovating mechanics, but also a great party game that doesn’t take time to learn and is fun for everyone.
Rocket League
There aren’t many games that are duplicates of FIFA, with the number of soccer games being limited to begin with. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of games that have a similar gameplay experience, fast-paced and tons of fun. Rocket League is definitely a fun take on soccer/football, where you control a vehicle that has to score a goal with a giant football much bigger than the vehicle itself.
It sounds more complicated than it is, but it has some of the most realistic mechanics we’ve seen in a game. You need to drive fast to get a chance to touch the giant ball, and then really ram yourself into it with force to hope for a goal.
AFL Evolution 2
Based on the Australian Football League, this game has a very positive rating on Steam with lots of good overviews from players praising the gameplay. There are three different career modes in AFL Evolution 2. The ‘be-a-pro’ mode is the most similar to FIFA, where you can create a character and progressively work on their skills as you both get better and journey through leagues.
Circle of Football (Soccer or Whatever)
Yes, you read the title right. Circle of Football is a simplistic 2D pixelated game that definitely doesn’t have simplistic physics. It’s very fast-paced, very addictive, and practically unlimited in possible gaming time. This is an arcade-style soccer game with very easy to maneuver controls.
There are a lot of different fields to play football in this game, and we don’t just mean different shades of green astroturf.
Dark Roll: Free Kick Challenge
If you favorite part of FIFA is when you get free kicks, then Dark Roll: Free Kick Challenge was made for you. All you do in this game is make powerful free kicks, as a ball yourself, or an orb. There’s also a goalee who tries his level best to block your efforts. There are lots of in-game challenges when you can play single player and hone your skills. Once you’re ready to compete, there are multiplayers for you to face other Dark Roll players. This works according to a leadboard and each player gets 5 chances to score a goal!
Super Club Soccer
Super Club Soccer is one of the best free to play soccer games in the market. This is a turn-based tactics game. You start by creating your character by customizing details about their appearance, skin color, hair color, jersey color, the works. Then you jump right into the action of the tactical online battles where every character is controlled by a real life player. There is no AI in this game!
Get a team together with some friends and practice till you guys are really good at this game — so you can compete in the world tournaments with the best teams in the world.
TOTOBALL
If you’ve ever been at a frat party, or just a cool house party, you’d have played Table Football, or Foosball. It comes as no surprise to anybody how fun this game is, and you can play it with how many ever people you can fit around the table. Even though the game is based on Football/Soccer, you don’t need to understand or be good at the game to be good at Foosball.
If we’ve made you nostalgic for a Foosball table, fear not: TOTOBALL is a Foosball type game where you can have the same gaming experience virtually. You can control a bar of players at a time, and you have to push and pull the bar to block a ball.
Alpaca Ball: Allstars
Alpaca Ball: Allstars the craziest and possibly most fun kind of football game – football played by Alpacas. Customize your alpaca player in wacky colors and outfits and then have fun in a chaotic yet hilarious soccer game. Watch alpacas trip on themselves and each other as you ram yourself into other players when you want to block them from reaching the ball. You don’t even have to play with a regular soccer ball, it can be a beach ball or a rugby ball or even a giant dice.
World of Soccer RELOADED
Another soccer game that’s fast-paced and tactical, welcome to World of Soccer Reloaded! This is a multiplayer game that’s free to play. You get to control only one player in this game, instead of shuffling controls between all the players in your team. The graphics are very simplistic, without much 3D frills or effects. World of Soccer Reloaded is a lot like a soccer purists’ game.
With an aerial top-down perspective, you really get to focus on the tactics of the game.
