EA Sports FC
The football game that used to be FIFA, with card packs bought for real money. From FC 27 the box says 16.
A match has a fixed length and a natural end, so agreeing on a number of matches works here. What eats the evenings isn't the matches, it's the Ultimate Team menus: objectives, packs and the market. Count the menu time into the agreement.
The limits by age, and the moves that make them stick: Screen time for kids and teens, a complete guide.
The most important things to know
EA Sports FC is the football game that used to be FIFA, and for many kids the gateway into gaming: real teams, real players and matches against friends on the sofa or online. In the Norwegian Media Authority's survey it's among the games most Norwegian children report playing.
At the heart of it sits Ultimate Team, where you build a dream squad by opening card packs with random contents, packs that can also be bought for real money. For years the box said PEGI 3 with a small “paid random items” label, a rating that answered whether the content suited children, not what the game was built to make its money on. FC 27 ends that run: the box now says 16, precisely because of the packs.
That exact mechanic is thoroughly documented: the Norwegian Consumer Council's Insert Coin report used FIFA as its main example of how games push players towards more time and more money. And PEGI has tightened up: from June 2026, new games selling paid random packs get at least a 16 rating. FC 27 is the first in the series to carry it, while FC 26 keeps its 3 because it predates the rule.
What's positive about EA Sports FC for your child?
Football is football: FC is play built on something your child already loves, easy to follow even for parents who don't game, and one of the best sofa games there is. Two controllers and a sibling derby is the game at its best.
How can EA Sports FC affect your child negatively?
Ultimate Team is built like a slot machine stuffed with football cards: you don't know what's in the pack until you've paid, the rare cards gleam and glow, and new campaigns with deadlines land week after week.
The pressure is social: a mate's bought squad beats yours, and the free route to the same cards is deliberately long. That's a lot of pressure for a child to carry alone.
Settings you set together
- A child or teen account in EA's family settings: purchases are blocked on child accounts, and teen accounts start with a spending limit of zero until you change it.
- A purchase block or PIN on the console as well, where the card is actually stored.
- Agree on FC Points before the first season: ideally none, and never to chase one particular card.
- Take a look at “The Grounds” together the first time: the new social world in FC 27, where up to a hundred players share one place, play small-sided matches and mini games and move on to Clubs from there (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2). Strangers meet there and can use emotes at each other, while voice and text chat runs with friends through EA Connect, so keep the EA friends list to people your child knows. EA's own guide to The Grounds.
Ask your child about the game
- Which player on your team would you never sell, and why that one?
- Tell me how Rivals went this week. Which division are you in now?
- Do you ever play Clubs or Career mode, or is Ultimate Team the whole game for you?
- Right after you open a pack, how does it feel, when it's good and when it isn't?
Glossary
- Ultimate Team
- The mode where you build a squad from player cards; it is where most of the playing, and all of the spending, happens.
- packs
- Sealed sets of random player cards, earned by playing or bought with FC Points; the odds for each tier are shown in small print before you open one.
- FC Points
- The real-money currency; 1,050 points cost about 10 euros and buy roughly one good pack, and a child account can have them blocked.
- coins
- The in-game currency earned by playing matches and selling cards; buying coins from outside sites breaks EA's rules and often ends in a hacked account.
- Rivals
- The weekly online league where you climb or drop divisions and collect rewards; the weekly rewards are a reason to log in every day.
- Champs
- The weekend tournament for the best players; rewards are high, and so is the pressure to play all weekend.
- SBC
- A squad building challenge: hand in players that fit a recipe and get a reward, often a pack; it eats evenings in the menus.
- meta
- Whatever players and tactics are considered strongest right now; the meta shifts with every update, which keeps the chase going.
- walkout
- The animation when a rare player comes out of a pack, built to feel like a win; the celebration is the sales pitch.
- Clubs
- A mode where friends each control one player on the same team; no packs, and one of the best ways to play with mates.
Sources
The whole mindset behind the guide, with the research and the open-door principle: Kids and social media, a parent's guide
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