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List of association football video games

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Association football or soccer video games are a subgenre of sports video games. The earliest examples appeared on video game consoles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Early home computer versions of such games also appeared during the 8-bit era in the early to mid-1980s.

History

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Early console and 8-bit computer days

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The first arcade system labeled as "Soccer" came out in 1973, being a variation of Pong in the guise of a soccer game: Taito's Soccer.[1]

The first home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey, which received an association football game with the title Soccer in 1974.[2] This game was controlled by paddles, similar to the Pong games of the time, and relied on a transparent overlay that simulated a soccer pitch on the television. It was essentially a table tennis game with a soccer skin overlaid on it.

In 1977, the launch of the Atari VCS (also known as the Atari 2600), based on the inexpensive MOS 6502 microprocessor architecture, brought video gaming to many homes. This was the first successful mass-market modular video game console, and it made it possible to play a variety of different games on the same console. In 1980, Atari's Pelé's Soccer/Championship Soccer became the first console association football game to be playable at home.[3] It resembled an actual football pitch much more than previous games, featuring a scrolling field, and it also had a celebration screen, a novelty for video games at the time. The graphics, although still crude by modern standards, were considered much better than in the Pong variants that preceded it. The 1983 updated Atari RealSports Soccer improved the graphics and gameplay, under the RealSports brand of updates to several sport video games. Its release happened around the time of the video game market crash of 1983.

In the early 1980s, the 8-bit home computer market, also based on the MOS 6502 microprocessor architecture, was going well. In 1982, the first successful home computer version of an association football game, called simply Soccer, was launched by Thorn EMI for the Atari 800 range of computers, both on cartridges and on 5¼-inch floppy disks.[4] The launch of the Commodore 64, also in 1982, brought home computers to many more households, and the development of association football video games really took off. The 16-bit home computer era of the latter 1980s continued the trend.

Arcade games

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The first association football arcade game was released one year after Atari's Pong machines: Taito's Soccer (1973).[1] It resembled a 2-player Pong game in both graphics and gameplay. Over the decades that followed, many more arcade association football game machines were produced.

Video game consoles

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Atari

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VCS (2600)

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5200

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Jaguar

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Lynx

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Nintendo

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Note: consoles are listed in chronological order (first handhelds, then home consoles), while individual game series are in alphabetical order.

Game Boy

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Game Boy Color

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Game Boy Advance

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Nintendo DS

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Nintendo 3DS

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Nintendo Entertainment System

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Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom

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Nintendo 64

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GameCube

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Wii

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Wii U

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Nintendo Switch

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Sony

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PlayStation

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PlayStation 2

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PlayStation 3

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PlayStation Portable

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PlayStation Vita

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PlayStation 4

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PlayStation 5

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Sega

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32X

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Game Gear

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Master System

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Mega-CD

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Mega Drive/Genesis

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Saturn

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Dreamcast

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Microsoft

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Xbox

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Xbox 360

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Xbox One

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Xbox Series X and Series S

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Computers

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8-bit home computers

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Atari 400 / 800 / 800XL / 64XE

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Commodore 64

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ZX Spectrum

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Amstrad CPC

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16-bit home computers

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Amiga

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Atari ST

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  • Emlyn Hughes International Soccer
  • 1st Division Manager
  • Anders Limpar's Proffs Fotboll
  • Bundesliga Manager
  • Championship Manager
  • Euro Soccer '88
  • Kick Off
  • Microprose Soccer
  • Sensible Soccer
  • Soccer Manager Plus
  • Striker

IBM PC compatibles

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Macintosh

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Microsoft Windows

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Android and iOS

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Google Play

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Marketing and franchises

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The biggest association football video game franchise is EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) by Electronic Arts (EA). Its major competitor is Konami's eFootball (formerly Pro Evolution Soccer or Winning Eleven). FIFA is also the most successful sports video game franchise overall.[10]

Franchises

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "First Soccer Videogame". guinnessworldrecords.com. Archived from the original on June 5, 2025. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  2. ^ VoxOdyssey; Vox. "Soccer on the Magnavox Odyssey home Gaming system". Vox Odyssey. Archived from the original on 2025-01-20. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  3. ^ "Atari 2600 VCS Soccer : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms". www.atarimania.com. Archived from the original on 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  4. ^ "Atari 400 800 XL XE Soccer : scans, dump, download, screenshots, ads, videos, catalog, instructions, roms". www.atarimania.com. Archived from the original on 2025-01-06. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  5. ^ Romano, Sal (March 9, 2023). "Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road – LEVEL-5 Vision 2023 Tsuzumi teaser trailer, new details". Gematsu. Archived from the original on March 9, 2023. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Romano, Sal (13 December 2024). "Sloclap announces soccer game REMATCH for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 15 April 2025. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Football Story on Steam". Archived from the original on 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  8. ^ "Going Public". PC Leisure. Winter 1990. pp. 42–43. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  9. ^ Brennan, Ciaran (January 1991). "IBM PC". ACE. p. 147. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  10. ^ Parkin, Simon (2016-12-21). "Fifa: the video game that changed football". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
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