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esports
Everything you need to know about EA FC 27’s new and improved multiplayer
EA Sports FC 27 launches worldwide on September 25, 2026, bringing a huge – and competitive – overhaul to multiplayer.
From wacky racing modes to basketball-like matches, street football and the brand new The Grounds feature, EA Sports FC 27 has put more emphasis on multiplayer fun than ever before.
Alongside more fluid player movement, improved set-piece dynamics and better AI, these additions make the newest game in the EA FC series truly feel like one for the fans.
Featuring a massive open-world social hub and even the chance to play bocce ball (yes, really), here’s everything you need to know about playing EA Sports FC 27 with your friends.
01
The Grounds
The Grounds is literally a game changer
© EA Sports
The main social update coming to EA Sports FC 27 is The Grounds, a new social, open-world hub that reworks the OG Clubs mode. There’s a lot to love about it.
Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, EA is calling it “the most social way to play”, with the ability to host not just you and your mates, but up to 100 players in a shared playground.
The central Terrace serves as a sort of pre-game waiting room. From there, you’ll choose your location, then be loaded into small scale, intimate kickabouts in one of three distinct pitches paying homage to football culture across Europe and South America. At the time of release, these pitches are: urban Montclair, France; Argentina’s Zeiza neighbourhood; and Parkside in the UK, which aims to capture the Saturday-morning kickabout.
Struggling to get to grips with The Grounds as a concept? Don’t worry; the game also serves up four mentors to talk you through everything it has to offer. These are: Alex Hunter (the main character in 'The Journey', a career story mode that ran from FIFA 17 to FIFA 19), Kylian Mbappé, Chloe Kelly and Paulo Dybala. Choose your mentor wisely. Their experience will help shape your game, whether you’re dropping in for 11v11 play, or the new 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 scenarios available to you and your friends.
02
Updated Clubs
Playing with friends is easier than ever
© EA Sports
The Clubs experience returns in EA Sports FC 27, but it’s now packed inside The Grounds, along with the return of Leagues and Playoffs. All you need to do is to walk into your Clubhouse to access the Clubs experience, including the expansion of Live Events with 11v11 Club Tournaments.
This mode gives you and your mates a new way to test yourselves against other Clubs, with Tournament Events featuring a varied number of rounds, as well as ever-changing match rules and rewards to keep you on your toes and the game feeling fresh. Just a few rules you’ll come to love (or fear) include Mystery Ball, King of the Hill, Survival, and Headers and Volleys.
03
Mini games bring the fun
Bucketball flips the game on its head
© EA Sports
Not every match has to be the most important one you’ll play this year. Occasionally, it’s nice to just have a kickabout. Remember kicking the ball with your friends against a wall? Or trying to hit the crossbar in the park? EA Sports FC 27 wants to bring back that fun, with a host of new, smaller features designed to make you rethink the beautiful game.
Specifically, the new Kickabouts feature allows you to access four new mini games:
- Goal Control is where you’ll try to score as many goals as possible against your opponent in a given time.
- Big Race is all about dribbling around obstacles in a first to the finish line format.
- Bucketball mixes 2v2 football with basketball, with players battling it out on a medium-sized pitch in three-minute matches where you’ll need to nail the ball through your opponent’s hoop, not goal.
- Balloon Ball is a four-player, all-against-all format borrowing from dodgeball. It’s a lot of fun.
04
Bocce Ball
Welcome to entirely new ways to play
© EA Sports
Just for fun, EA Sports FC 27 has added in a whole new Bocce Ball game, a three-player free-for-all played over three one-minute rounds. Obviously, this isn’t strictly football, but it will test your accuracy and your nerves.
With new obstacles added each round, it becomes more and more difficult as you progress. You’ll score points by passing or shooting balls into Targets.
The game timer begins when a ball lands inside a target. When the countdown reaches zero, the target splits into even smaller Targets, and so on over the three rounds. Players earn points for each ball still inside the target when it splits, with the most balls inside at the end of the game winning.
05
Even more fun stuff
However you want to play, you can pretty much do it
© EA Sports
There’s a lot more fun stuff in EA FC 27 multiplayer. The Drop Kick Targets feature will pop up inside The Grounds, allowing players to instantly take aim at a given target. Reportedly, this feature will continue to evolve post-launch.
There’s also an Amps feature, essentially a consumable power-up that gives your player a boost mid-match, much like the random boosters in the platform racing games of old. These Amps last for a limited time only, with each acting on a specific attribute.
Another great feature of The Grounds is customisation, with the option to kit your player out as you see fit, including with authentic match day apparel from a wide range of official club sponsors.
Finally, EA has committed The Grounds to regular updates after launch, including new seasons, new objectives, Club and League Playoffs, and even visual enhancements and seasonal updates.
What this says is that multiplayer isn’t an afterthought in EA FC 27, but an ever-evolving, living compliment alongside the main game, and one that’s here to stay.
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