SIGames’ Football Manager 2023 was the series’ most successful ever, the company has revealed.
“This blog is one that I have been looking forward to writing,” writes director Miles Jacobson. He reveals the title “is the most played in the series’ history,” and credits that success partially to the decision over the past few years to pursue new platforms, “which hasn’t always worked that well (may Stadia rest in peace).” Over five-million players have picked up Football Manager 2023 across all platforms, in comparison to only two-million players a year with their previous approach to multi platform releases.
Despite a delay at the eleventh-hour to Football Manager 2023’s PS5 release, the game has gone on to be the most successful yet for SIGames. It may be coming at a crucial moment too, with chief competitor EA now parting from the FIFA licence the chief advantage they had over Football Manager as a franchise is now null and void. Especially as the title was also one of the fastest growing iOS games in 2022 already.
SIGames have confirmed that they will be including teams and players from the UEFA Women’s Champion League and that the franchise will be pivoting to the Unity engine, which is a major coup for the game creation platform after the shaky launch of their AI tools earlier this week.
Vindication for mobile
Although it’s unclear what percentage of players are originating on mobile, by just comparing the numbers we can see that the franchise’s playerbase more than doubled, and it’s undeniable mobile must have had some effect on that. Football Manager 2023 Touch hitting Apple Arcade also means that the franchise has wide reach on mobile.
Football Manager has been a perennial figure in the sports management genre, and there will be many who are glad to see the title reach these heights. Although just as many will be watching to see if SIGames can emulate this success in later instalments, with the addition of the UEFA Women’s Champion League - which has seen major traction in recent years - it’s clear they aren’t content to rest on their laurels and are looking to make Football Manager 2025 bigger and better.
