Every official FIFA World Cup game since 1998 has been ranked, including an underrated gem. From the legendary soundtracks of World Cup 98 to the vibrant celebration of South Africa 2010, official World Cup video games used to dominate the football gaming calendar.
There have been some great - and not so great - World Cup games over the years. But it has been a long time since we had a full official console release. The World Cup's history in videogames began with the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum back in the 1980s. The infamous World Cup Carnival celebrated Mexico 1986, but was slammed by critics as "the worst football simulation I have ever seen" - it even led to a lawsuit.
Times have changed since then, and football sims by and large are of a relatively solid quality. But there hasn't been an official World Cup game on consoles since 2014. That is because EA Sports, who held the license for the World Cup until recently, decided instead to release DLC and updates to FIFA 18 and FIFA 23 for the 2018 and 2022 competitions respectively. FIFA then partnered with Netflix earlier this week to release a game on the streaming platform - but it is not coming to consoles.
So while we mourn those official games celebrating the world's biggest football showcase and try the official World's Game tournament on EA FC 26, let us take a trip down memory lane with all five World Cup console releases since 1998.
5. Germany 2006
Platforms: Nintendo GameCube, PC, PS2, Xbox 360, Xbox. By no means a bad football sim, the 2006 World Cup game was mainly saved by its mode that allowed players to relive famous World Cup moments. The first of its kind to offer online gameplay, it was a marked improvement in lots of ways from the 2002 game. However, it was not as good as Pro Evo was at this time, and was essentially just a stopgap between the two main FIFA games. Metacritic aggregate scores for 2006 varied between 72 and 77 depending on the platform, highlighting a solid but unspectacular entry in World Cup game history.
4. Brazil 2014
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360. The 2014 edition was a missed opportunity, given it initially released on old gen consoles. A largely forgettable entry in the series, Brazil 2014 was poorly received at the time in no small part to the fact it was not initially available on new-gen consoles. EA Sports chose to release the game on PS3 and Xbox 360 only because Xbox One and PS4 consoles were not adopted by gamers around the world enough - most particularly the tournament's host nation. EA Sports changed their mind in a fashion by releasing it as a new game mode for PS4 and Xbox One versions of FIFA 14, but the damage was done. Unlike the better World Cup games, there was not much setting 2014 apart - a lot of the game modes returned but were not any better, the exception being the Road to Rio mode that included the entire World Cup qualification process.
3. Japan and South Korea 2002
Platforms: PS2, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo GameCube. This one holds a special place in my heart, being the one game I got with the GameCube on launch - and it provided endless hours of silly football fun. Scoring from the halfway line time and time again with David Beckham was a particular joy thanks to the broken 'star player' mechanic. The special challenge I will always remember is attempting to take South Korea to the final and win the whole competition, which was made especially tricky thanks to only having one 'star player' whereas big nations boasted two or three. The 2002 game provided a stepping stone between FIFA 2002 and FIFA 2003's different engines but kept a lot of the series' familiar features. Metacritic ranked it at between 73 and 79 on consoles, which in my view makes it an underrated gem.
2. France 1998
Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo 64. The OG for millennial gamers hooked on World Cup nostalgia. France 98 was fantastic, having been backed up by the equally brilliant FIFA: Road to World Cup 98. Customisable squads was a game-changer; who did not spend hours making sure England's 1998 squad was either completely accurate or packed with players from their favourite clubs? Gaming to the sounds of Tubthumping by Chumbawamba in the glorious summer of football cut short by Beckham's infamous red card. Playing any of the 15 classic World Cup matches was a great extra touch, and playing in sepia showed a level of detail that really summed up what made 98 so fun. It also had a level of immersion that was quite remarkable for the 90s, thanks to adding in captions detailing the Golden Boot and Fair Play awards at the end of a tournament playthrough.
1. South Africa 2010
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii. The GOAT of World Cup games, if you ask me. There was so much to love about this game, but the main thing was how it encapsulated everything that the real-life World Cup should be. A vivid celebration of culture and football, even the vuvuzela noise was added to the in-game audio. 2010's game expanded on the scenario mode with 55 moments from World Cup history, and 2010 events were added with an online update. The Captain Your Country mode was a great feature, but one of the greatest feelings was triumphing in an online tournament against other FIFA players around the world representing their country. Unlike many other World Cup games, it was also an improvement upon the previous FIFA entry - in this case, FIFA 10 - and is remembered fondly by myself and so many others.
