Unlike the overall indifference I felt playing EA College Football 26 this year, a lot about Madden NFL 26 feels like a nice step forward. Much of the marketing around this year’s gameplay changes has focused on enabling players to feel like they really pop, whether through the new QB DNA system or expanded movement features. Both, as well as expanded playbooks that match coach tendencies on real-life gameday, make this feel significantly different from Madden NFL 25, in an excellent way. Superstar abilities are no longer a given. The skills trainer now features 130 tutorials, and defensive adjustments really give you a plethora of ways to stop the opponent from scoring.

All of this, combined with another year of EA Sports to expand Franchise Mode (my preferred mode for this series), had me hooked from the start. New scouting systems and coaching archetypes allow you to put just as much work in off the field as on, and in many ways, I had just as much fun planning for a game as playing it. Facing a rookie quarterback led me to spend more time honing my defense, whereas weeks against defensive juggernauts kept my attention on offense leading up to Sunday. These continued fine-tuned expansions to the way you run a team make it my favorite Franchise-style mode in all of sports games for 2025.

Things like Franchise Mode wear and tear, combined with the actual impact of hiring good coordinators, help the game to feel authentic. Licensed stadium music and improved coach likeness also help things to feel as real as they get. During matchups, things like snow or other weather impacts can really throw you for a loop, as you’ll see in the screenshot below. These features all coalesce to make the game feel like a step up, and other elements like unique broadcast teams for Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays make everything feel like EA Sports spent time ensuring every aspect of the game scored this year.

Madden Ultimate Team, the card-collecting game mode, is here and relatively the same. More live events, as well as team-building challenges, give you more of a reason to play the mode, keeping in mind its goal is to get you to spend real money on in-game cards that reset after every annual release. My complaints for the game, if any, this time around still persist around how much time and effort is put into keeping up this game mode, all the while we’ve seen a slow but steady drip of improvements to Franchise Mode. There are on and off years for Madden NFL, and luckily, no amount of microtranscations take away from this year’s game being great.

All in all, if you’re looking to pick up an American Football game this year, I’d take Madden NFL 26 over EA Sports College Football 26. The gameplay feels smoother, and the improvements from last year are much more noticeable on the pro side.

It’ll be interesting to see how online play and other modes keep me invested through the fall, but if you’re a Franchise Mode player, this year’s game is a consistent step up from last year, offering you both on-and-off-field ways to be the coach you pretend to be every Sunday while you yell at your TV. Madden NFL 26 is out now for Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2. Let us know in the comments if you plan to check out this year’s release!

An Xbox Series X review copy of Madden NFL 26 was provided by EA for this review.

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Madden NFL 26

69.99

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Great presentation improvements and realism
• Wonderful Franchise Mode boosts
• Good changes to skill trees and superstar abilities

Cons

• Ultimate Team is still a huge focus, and wants your money badly