EA Sports FC correctly predicted Spain as 2026 World Cup winners — fifth time in a row

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and EA Sports FC called it. The studio ran simulations of every group stage and knockout round match, and Spain came out on top every time. EA first published that prediction on 6th June, weeks before the final.

Across EA Sports FC 26 and FC Mobile, Spain's national team lifted the trophy over 11 million times in-game before the real tournament even concluded. EA's official account congratulated Spain on X, tagging the Spanish team's profile with "Congratulations on your second star." The simulation streak now stands at five consecutive World Cups: Spain in 2010, Germany in 2014, France in 2018, Argentina in 2022, and Spain again in 2026.

EA lost the official FIFA licence after a dispute over rising licensing fees, rebranding its annual football series as EA Sports FC starting with the 2023 release. Despite no longer holding the World Cup name or branding rights, the game includes an International Tournament mode that mirrors the real tournament structure closely enough to keep running these simulations. The streak is a genuine marketing win — five correct calls in a row is hard to dismiss as luck, even accounting for the fact that simulations run thousands of matches and EA picks the most likely outcome.

With EA Sports FC 26 already out and the World Cup result now matching the game's prediction, EA has a clean promotional moment to close the summer on. Whether the streak holds in 2030 remains to be seen, but five from five is a hard record to argue with.