'FIFA Rivals' Launches—Why Mythical Games Thinks It'll Hit Bigger Than 'NFL Rivals'

FIFA Rivals launched across iOS and Android on Thursday, and developer Mythical Games believes that the mobile blockchain game could make a massively larger impact than its earlier American football game, NFL Rivals.

The licensed mobile soccer game is rolling out with a multi-year licensing agreement with giant sportswear brand Adidas. As a result, the game will feature Adidas-sponsored athletes, including Lionel Messi—widely considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time—along with collectible, tradable gear.

John Linden, co-founder and CEO of Mythical Games, told Decrypt that announcing the game was an eye-opening experience, as the studio felt the full force of soccer’s (or football’s) international popularity. Major brands, athletes, football organizations, and even the government of a small country have reached out to get involved in the game, he said.

“The affinity to football is just so much greater than anything I think I've ever understood,” Linden explained. “The addressable market of football worldwide is a little over half of the world’s population—roughly five billion consumers around the world—so it’s a big market for us.”

Mythical Games launched NFL Rivals two years ago, which it defines as a success with over seven million players to date. But Linden believes that FIFA Rivals could be 20 times bigger. This figure comes from his comparison of existing soccer games to American football games.

It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but the PC version of top soccer game EA FC 25 had 108,534 concurrent players at its all-time peak in January, according to Steam Charts. When compared to Madden NFL 25’s high of 5,905 in December, the sheer size of soccer is apparent—18 times bigger, to be precise.

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And a free-to-play mobile game like FIFA Rivals is bound to reach a much wider audience, including casual players. For example, EA FC Mobile has racked up more than 500 million downloads on Android alone, not counting the iOS audience. That potential reach has propelled partnership interest around FIFA Rivals, Linden said.

“We're getting hit up on a very global basis. We're seeing interest from countries that are normally overlooked by game developers, just because it's not necessarily a top 10 market,” Linden told Decrypt. “I won't mention the country yet, but [the governing body] reached out, and said: Look, we have to partner with you, because this game will be massive in our country.”

Mythical Games added that Adidas is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of brand partnerships. Linden said there has been interest in groups that the studio has never worked with before, such as telecom firms.

The blockchain gaming studio undoubtedly hopes for such success, having signed a contract with FIFA that will run through “multiple sets of World Cups”—the quadrennial soccer tournament that next returns in 2026.

FIFA recently announced that it will migrate its NFT collectibles platform FIFA Collect to its own Avalanche L1 blockchain, departing Algorand in the process. FIFA Rivals, meanwhile, is built on the Mythos chain, a Polkadot-based gaming network that was spearheaded by Mythical Games.

Linden added that FIFA has reached out to Mythical Games to try to “make some things happen” on FIFA’s Avalanche L1. 

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Lessons from the field

Through two years of supporting NFL Rivals, Linden said the studio has learned how to balance its “living economy,” which allows players to freely trade in-game players like Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The challenge was figuring out how to make assets for new seasons feel valuable without crashing the price of old ones. 

Now, as NFL Rivals enters the third season in August, Mythical Games is “doubling, tripling down” on the product now that it is well past the economic experimentation phase. 

“We're going to be adding a lot more marketing now that we're very confident in what works and what doesn't,” Linden told Decrypt. “We're going [to add] a lot more quality—a lot more focus on PvP, where you'll see brand new animation models, you'll see brand new characters, and you're gonna see brand new stadiums.”

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From this experience, Mythical Games has taken a number of learnings into the launch of FIFA Rivals. Considering that the average European spends less money on gaming than the average American, the soccer gaming economy has shifted to be driven more by skill.

Later this year, FIFA Rivals is expected to introduce an “AI sports agent” that will “guide [players] through their journey.” Plus, Linden said there will be a barrage of esports competitions, club collaborations, and new game modes added.

Edited by Andrew Hayward