EA has released more than a few FIFA games since the series’ inception back in 1993. The yearly release schedule means FIFA 23 is the 30th main entry. This anniversary and the planned rebranding next season are a perfect setting for ranking the best FIFA games of all time.
As much as we’d like to just list our personal favorites, that wouldn’t be very objective, and wouldn’t serve much of a purpose as a ranking besides sharing our biased opinion. Instead, we looked at the Metacritic score of every FIFA ever released and ranked them in the top 10 based on critics’ review ratings.
We can already hear the rumblings that critics don’t know anything about true gaming and would give any AAA release at least a nine out of 10. Here’s our answer. First of all, as we will find out together, no, critics do not give any AAA game nines and 10s.
Second of all, going with user ratings would be utter chaos. Games rated high on consoles are rated low on PC, and vice versa. Games rated high on next-gen consoles are rated poorly on last-gen consoles. In some instances, even the ratings between the same generations of consoles would vastly differ.
As a compromise, we will compare each game the critics have placed in the FIFA Hall of Fame with the user ratings on all three major platforms: PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. We will be using the current-gen reviews for every entry, so no PS2 review score for FIFA 09, for example.
Finally, we have ranked the top 10 as per the highest Metacritic average review score on any one platform. If the same game holds a lower score on a different platform, it would not have any effect on its ranking here.
With the base rules set in stone, it’s time to see what are the best FIFA games ever, according to critics.
The 10 best FIFA games ever
10) FIFA 17 – 8.4 rating
User score:
- PC – 4.3
- PlayStation 4 – 5.0
- Xbox One – 5.3
We’re not off to the best start here. FIFA 17 is by far the one fans and critics disagree the most on. While most critics thought it was a pretty good piece of gaming, fans across all platforms knocked the user scores to ground level.
These scores are truly telling of FIFA’s recent lack of quality and polish. Even critics don’t dare give new FIFA games high grades, which makes FIFA 17 the latest series entry to make the all-time top 10, and it was barely able to squeeze in.
9) FIFA 07 – 8.5 rating
User score:
- PC – 7.9
- PlayStation 2 – 7.8
- Xbox – 8.3
It’s funny how things work. If this ranking was based on user ratings, FIFA 07 would have been standing firmly at the top, yet it’s near the bottom of critics’ top 10. It’s still one FIFA game that critics and fans on all platforms universally agree is great, which is something we won’t be able to say very often in the course of this article.
8) FIFA 01 – 8.5 rating
User score:
- PC – 7.0
- PlayStation – 7.1
Now that’s a throwback. FIFA 01 is so old that Xbox wasn’t even a thing when it launched. Pepperidge Farm remembers, though, and we can confirm that FIFA 01 was the peak of the early 3D era of the series. There were times when EA was improving with each new release, believe it or not.
7) FIFA 09 – 8.7 rating
User score:
- PC – 6.8
- PlayStation 3 – 7.5
- Xbox 360 – 7.8
FIFA 09’s PC user score suffers from next-gen syndrome, i.e. the unwritten rule that FIFA games released during a generational transition will have old-gen graphics and features on PC. This isn’t the case anymore but as we will continue to see with other entries to the list, it was a big issue with older generations.
Aside from that small bump, FIFA 09 is generally cherished by critics and fans and would land on each side’s top 10 FIFA games of all time. Fun fact: FIFA 09 is where Ultimate Team began its journey to becoming the most popular game mode in the series’ history.
6) FIFA 14 – 8.8 rating
User score:
- PC – 5.0
- PlayStation 4 – 6.3
- Xbox One – 5.8
Remember what we just said about FIFA games released close to console launches and PC ports? Yeah, there’s more of that here. We can’t pretend console users were thrilled with FIFA 14. It is the second-lowest user-rated game in the top 10, which only confirms fans’ dissatisfaction with the last decade of FIFA. The two most recent titles on critics’ all-time top 10 lists are also the most disliked by the player base.
5) FIFA 03 – 8.8 rating
User score:
- PC – 7.0
- PlayStation 2 – 6.6
- Xbox – 7.8
FIFA 03 has the most disjointed user scores. PS2 players weren’t too happy with what they got while their Xbox counterparts rate FIFA 03 among the best in the series. PC gamers were playing it neutral with this one.
FIFA 03 was part of a unique period for the series that began with FIFA 02 and concluded with FIFA 07 where each release had a very different gameplay, look, and feel to it. Definitely something we can’t say about any other FIFA era. When you’re so far away from the norm, you’re destined to be loved by some and hated by others. Apparently, FIFA 03 got most of the love from Xbox users, and most of the hate from PlayStation 2 users, with PC players eating popcorn on the side.
4) FIFA 11 – 8.9 rating
User score:
- PC – 7.6
- PlayStation 3 – 8.0
- Xbox 360 – 7.5
FIFA 11 finally brought along modern graphics and gameplay to PC and that is reflected in the user score. It was a huge leap in graphical fidelity and gameplay realism as a whole, which pleased console players too. It’s always wholesome to see a game make everyone happy. Too bad it would be the last entry on the list to satisfy all four factions at once.
3) FIFA 13 – 9.0 rating
User score:
- PC – 6.7
- PlayStation 3 – 6.7
- Xbox 360 – 6.3
If only Xbox users liked FIFA 13 a little bit more, we could have seen a perfect alignment of user scores. Unfortunately for the game, these scores reflect the fanbase’s apathy for it. It’s neither beloved like 07, 09, and 11, nor despised like 14 or 17. It’s just there.
Some say apathy is much worse to endure than outright hate, but we have a sneaky feeling most players would still prefer FIFA 13 over 14 and 17. It’s in the numbers.
2) FIFA 12 – 9.0 rating
User score:
- PC – 7.2
- PlayStation 3 – 7.2
- Xbox 360 – 6.8
We’re noticing a trend here. Fans loved FIFA 11, then they were content with FIFA 12 before getting kind of bored with FIFA 13 and straight-up disappointed at FIFA 14. This four-year stretch was among the worst in terms of repetition and lack of innovation. Then again, all four of these games are within the top six best FIFA games ever, at least as far as critics are concerned.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. – EA circa 2012, probably.
1) FIFA 10 – 9.1 rating
User score:
- PC – 4.7
- PlayStation 3 – 7.6
- Xbox 360 – 7.4
PC players look away, this one’s gonna be ugly. We warned about the console generation phenomenon with PC versions. FIFA 10 is a game from 2009, which is right in the middle of the PS3/Xbox 360 era. Why the long PC faces then?
That’s the problem, FIFA 10 was released years after the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launched, yet it had PlayStation 2/Xbox graphics. Throwing another bag of salt in the wound, EA kept all new features strictly for current-gen consoles. Essentially, FIFA 10 for PC was a full-price roster update.
It’s a real shame too because the actual game, the one console players got to play, was one of the better ones in the whole series, as indicated by the user scores on those platforms.
This concludes our list of the best FIFA games of all time. We’re happy to see that most of the games in this top 10 are generally liked by the public too. With the exception of two entries, which happen to be the most recent ones, each FIFA on here is viewed by fans as anything from fine to outstanding. Turns out critics and fans aren’t so different after all, at least in their FIFA tastes.
