EA Correctly Predicted Spain's 2026 World Cup Victory

EA Sports has once again accurately predicted the winner of the FIFA Men's World Cup, with its 2026 tournament simulation correctly forecasting Spain as champions after their 1-0 victory over Argentina in the final on July 19.

The successful prediction extends EA's remarkable streak of correctly calling the World Cup winner in five consecutive tournaments.

EA's Winning Predictions

EA's simulations have now correctly predicted the champions of:

• 2010 – Spain
• 2014 – Germany
• 2018 – France
• 2022 – Argentina
• 2026 – Spain

The company's only major miss in recent history came in 2006, when it predicted the Czech Republic would lift the trophy. Instead, the team was eliminated during the group stage.

Where the Simulation Went Wrong

Although EA correctly picked Spain to win the tournament, one of its biggest player predictions missed the mark.

The simulation expected Lamine Yamal to finish as the tournament's top scorer in his first World Cup appearance.

Instead:

• Kylian Mbappé claimed the Golden Boot with 10 goals in 769 minutes.
• Lamine Yamal scored just one goal throughout the tournament.

No Official FIFA Branding

Since losing the FIFA license, EA no longer features the official FIFA World Cup branding in its football games.

Instead, EA Sports FC 26 includes a "World's Game" update that introduces a 48-team international tournament mode, closely mirroring the World Cup while remaining legally separate from FIFA's official competition.

Meanwhile, fans looking for an officially licensed FIFA World Cup experience can find one through Netflix's football game, which received updates throughout the tournament to reflect real-world results.