Football Manager is a game that requires patience - you can’t fly through a season in a setting, and depending on how involved you want to be in scouting and transfers as well as training, the day-to-day grind can be almost literal.īut FIFA has built out the components to go beyond simply playing the game engine in individual games, or playing other people through online play, with FUT and elaborate programs like Weekend League, where players are basically incentivized to grind Friday-Sunday to pick up rewards and bonuses. If you have patience, frankly both games are good for you.

Since every FM game is individual, you don’t interact directly with other players on your saves. If you want the full experience, you need to play on a PC gaming rig (or any computer with enough gaming power), otherwise the Switch and Android and Apple mobile versions offer two different, less robust versions that don’t require as much RAM to play. Since FIFA is commonly played online and the community aspect is so popular, PS4 is by far the most popular platform.įootball Manager 2020 is available on PC via Windows, on all computers through the Steam store, Android and Apple platforms, Nintendo Switch and Stadia. PlatformsįIFA20 is on PlayStation 4, XBOX One, Nintendo Switch, on PC via Windows, and the new Google Stadia platform. While it’s more niche than FIFA, Football Manager’s exhaustive database of players is strong enough that more than a few teams have literally used it to find real-life players to sign over the years. In a way, the point of the game is not the games, where you don’t control the players, but in managing, hence the title.įootball Manager is the game of choice for tactics nerds, obsessive fans and wannabe coaches. Players themselves play it, people who aren’t really into soccer play it, it’s a real phenomenon.įootball Manager is also a soccer simulation game, but instead of focusing on playing as the players in a real sim, you play the manager and do the work. You play as a team in game situations, with abilities to play long-term “career mode,” basically play the plot of the Goal! movies through “The Journey,” and collect players in a league and play in a dynamic tournament through FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT).įIFA is definitely the most popular soccer video game. The FIFA series is a soccer simulation game. Of course, you can play both if you want - it’s your life! Do what makes you feel happy! - but if you only have the bandwidth for one and you need help picking, here’s a guide to help you decide. Those are the two biggest video games related to soccer out there (yes, I know there’s Pro Evolution Soccer, but I think I know all of one person who plays it), but if you haven’t been playing either for awhile, you may not know which one would be right for you. It’s video game week here at SB Nation, and if you’re not a gamer but intrigued by soccer-related video games, there may be a central dilemma: FIFA or Football Manager?

Fifa 2020