Next Football Manager 26 Console and Touch Update Delayed Until the New Year

Days after it was made available for the Steam Beta Track, Update 5 (26.1.1) for Football Manager 26 is now available across Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store. The update is significant and contains over 300 fixes, mostly concerning “player and staff contract logic, under the hood improvements to game stability, and improved post-match and past match report screens.”

However, if you’re playing FM26 on a console or mobile device, you may have to wait just a bit longer for the most recent updates to arrive.

According to the latest patch notes for FM26, Sports Interactive offered the following statement:

The next update for FM26 Console and FM26 Touch will now come in the new year. Critical issues were identified in the previous Public Beta Track update that impacted those versions directly. As a result, our usual submission process to these platforms will not be possible this side of Christmas. 

The Console Edition Of FM26 Has Been Plagued With Issues

All in all, Football Manager 26 has been incredibly controversial since launch, to say the least. Upon release, the latest entry into the long-running football management sim received tons of backlash due to bugs, issues with AI, and a controversial new user interface (UI) that many have found to be both unresponsive and unintuitive. Worse yet, many PC players — the primary market for the series — have complained that it seems catered to those on console.

However, console players don’t seem all too happy either.

After the FM26‘s beta period ended and the game was released on all available platforms, many console players complained of poor performance, especially when in matches. And though that criticism has subsided just a bit in the weeks that have followed, many console players still seem dissatisfied with the overall quality of the game right now.

Unfortunately, these players will have to wait until the first week of January at the earliest for any more significant changes and fixes to arrive.

While delays to console and mobile updates are not uncommon due to platform certification requirements, the timing is less than ideal given FM26’s rocky launch period. Sports Interactive has previously emphasized the importance of the Public Beta Track in identifying issues before wider rollout, but the studio now appears to be prioritizing stability over speed as it prepares the next round of fixes. For console and Touch players, that means an extended wait — and continued patience — as development resumes in the new year.