23 Aug, 2025
Our resident FM expert takes you through the biggest Football Manager Survey ever taken in 2023! We break down the results.
The first big takeaway? The more time you put into Football Manager, the more you enjoy it. Sounds obvious, but the numbers make it crystal clear: people who rack up serious hours rate the game higher for enjoyment, value for money, and overall quality.
If you’re 200 hours into a save with Barrow, you’re probably loving life. If you bounced off after 15 hours because your wonderkid demanded a move to PSG, you’re less likely to recommend it. FM only really sings when you get lost in it.
One of the harsher realities from the survey is that flashy new features often fail to impress the hardcore fanbase. Cosmetic bits like licences, new press conference dialogue, or even entire leagues (sorry, women’s football) scored far lower in importance than the match engine, tactics, and transfer AI. Basically: you can add all the branding deals and fancy dialogue you like, but if the match engine still makes defenders behave like they’ve taken a bribe, players won’t care.
Younger players? They care about graphics, presentation, and all the shiny stuff. Older players? They just want the match engine to stop doing weird things and transfers to feel realistic. Middle-aged players? According to the data, they’re basically Switzerland… completely neutral about everything.
The survey also revealed a big group of players who… simply didn’t buy certain versions. Not because they were angry or protesting, but because they were perfectly happy with the one they already had.
For them, FM isn’t a yearly purchase. It’s: “I’ll upgrade when I feel like it.” Which explains why FM13 still has active saves on Reddit in 2025.
Nearly 70% of players believe Football Manager would benefit from proper competition in the football management genre. They think it would push innovation and stop Sports Interactive getting too comfortable. But, and it’s a big but, only 45% said they’d upgrade their hardware if future editions demanded it. So, yes, fans want innovation, but not if it means buying a new graphics card just to see shinier dugouts.
The message from players is clear: don’t lose the soul of Football Manager chasing features no one asked for. But at the same time, the game can’t coast on nostalgia forever. If Sports Interactive wants to keep fans hooked into the 2030s, the match engine and tactical depth need to keep evolving, because no one ever bought Football Manager for the press conferences.
Check out our full, in depth FM 26 Release Date article, which is constantly updated when we get news on anything FM 26 related!
