Is eFootball fun? Not really, unless you stick to matches with friends. eFootball scores 4/10 for fun. The football can feel like the real sport, but online play is built around paid squads that new players can’t match.
Where this score comes from: Steam player reviews, last checked against 314 recent and most-helpful English reviews in October 2026. eFootball on Steam
eFootball is Konami’s free-to-play follow-up to Pro Evolution Soccer, on Steam since 2021. Most of the game lives in Dream Team, where you build a squad out of player cards and climb online divisions. The download is free. The squad is where the money goes.
eFootball scores 4/10 on immediate fun. Steam reviews are split almost exactly in half, and players under 20 hours are only a little kinder. Many of the happy ones are one-liners saying it is free and looks good. The longer reviews from new players tell another story: slow, heavy controls, a stack of cutscenes in every match, and online opponents with much stronger squads from the first week. A free price can’t cover for that.
The football itself, on a good day. Fans who left EA’s FC series say eFootball plays at a calmer, more realistic pace, with lots of ways to pass, shoot and cross. Many players are surprised by how good the graphics, animations and goal celebrations look for a free game.
Casual exhibition matches with current teams are easy to enjoy, and one player who mostly plays the AI said collecting cards of favorite players became a habit. A few new players liked weekend games with friends best.
The squads. Dream Team is a card game first. Reviewers at every playtime call it pay to win: the best players come from packs bought with coins, and coins cost real money. One newcomer lost to higher-rated teams inside two hours and said starter players are simply too slow to keep up. Long-time players talk about spending hundreds of dollars to stay competitive. Many veterans are also convinced matches are scripted against them.
Then the controls. New players call it sluggish, with passes that go where the game decides and players who feel like they weigh a ton. One PC player only ever saw controller prompts, and fans say you need a gamepad. In October 2026 an update also left a lot of PC players stuck in slow motion or crashing mid-match.
Solo: Matches against the AI are the gentlest way in, and a starter squad can win early division games. Climb higher and you run into paid teams, laggy servers and opponents from divisions above yours.
With friends: The best way to play. Exhibition matches with real clubs keep things even, so the squad race matters less. In some regions it can be hard to find other players online, so bring your own.
Only as a free kickabout with friends. If you want to climb Dream Team divisions, expect to pay or lose a lot. Call of Duty follows the same pattern at 3/10: a fun core buried under everything around it.
For comparison, we rated Star Wars: Galactic Racer 8/10 and Dead by Daylight 5/10 on the same fun-only scale.
See where it lands in our list of games not worth playing.
eFootball scores 4/10 on immediate fun. Real football feel for free. Online, paid squads and sluggish controls bury new players fast.
Pay-to-win squads. Sluggish controls.
One question: did it deliver immediate fun? Graphics, story depth, difficulty and critical acclaim are ignored. Pick-up-and-play accessibility is rewarded; anything that makes you wait for the fun to start is penalized.
How we score: We don't care about graphics, story depth, or critical acclaim. One question — did it deliver immediate fun? We reward pick-up-and-play accessibility and penalize anything that makes you wait for the fun to start.