EA's football sim has now correctly predicted five World Cups in a row
EA Sports FC got the 2026 World Cup right — again. Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19, with Ferran Torres scoring the only goal in the 106th minute of extra time. EA had called Spain as champions before the tournament even kicked off, extending its correct-prediction streak to five consecutive World Cups.
Five for five
EA runs its World Cup simulations inside the game itself, crunching data on more than 20,000 players — individual ratings, team statistics, and historical results — through an AI-driven algorithm. Before the 2026 tournament, EA Sports FC 26 simulations had Spain lifting the trophy over 11 million times across the main game and EA Sports FC Mobile.
The full track record: Spain in 2010, Germany in 2014, France in 2018, Argentina in 2022, and Spain again in 2026. Five predictions, five correct answers. EA's own post on X summed it up: "We predicted it. You played it. Spain made it real. Five correct predictions in a row."
We called it. You played it. Spain made it a reality.
— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) July 19, 2026
Five predictions in a row, and @SEFutbol lifted the trophy 11M+ times across #FC26 and #FCMobile.
Congratulations on your second star ⭐️⭐️#TheWorldsGame pic.twitter.com/F4cMoboKVa
Luck or algorithm?
A five-from-five streak is statistically hard to dismiss. But context matters. EA's Madden NFL simulations — run right before the Super Bowl rather than months out — have hit 8 of the last 15, a more modest record. Its NHL Stanley Cup predictions have missed for 14 straight years, per Notebookcheck. The World Cup simulations are completed before a single group-stage match is played, which makes the accuracy more striking — but also means the model leans heavily on pre-tournament form rather than in-tournament momentum.
GameSpot notes that EA did misfire at the 2006 World Cup, predicting Czech Republic — a reminder that the streak, impressive as it is, isn't inevitable.
What changed with the license
EA lost its FIFA license ahead of the 2024 rebrand to EA Sports FC, raising questions about whether the World Cup simulation tradition would continue. It did. For the 2026 tournament, EA released a free update called The World's Game for EA Sports FC 26, adding an authentic group-stage bracket and newly licensed national teams. The prediction ran through that mode.
EA Sports FC 26 is available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store at $69.99. Whether the algorithm's football instincts translate to a must-buy is a separate question — but as a forecasting curiosity, five-from-five is hard to ignore.
