Is FIFA Pay-to-Win?

FIFA pay to win
Those who spend money for FIFA Points have the best chances to win. Is that correct? | © EA Sports

The ones who pay the most money in Ultimate Team win. Is that true? And if so, has that always been the case? Is pay-to-win the keyword for reaching the elite rank in the Weekend League? We tell you whether FIFA is a pay-to-win game.

It's so annoying when you play against Mbappé or Ronaldo in one of the first weekend leagues. Sure, you can have Pack Luck in the beginning, but some teams are just way too sick. So very often, you play against typical pay-to-win gamers. We hope, of course, that you are not one of them. But is it that easy? Who pays a lot, wins everything? On the one hand yes, but on the other hand...

Is FIFA a Pay-to-Win-Game?

In the beginning of FIFA, it wasn't. In the time from FIFA 93 to FIFA 15, money was not an advantage. Ultimate Team already existed in FIFA 09, but back then, the gameplay was still so simple that the difference between the players on the pitch wasn't great. And more than that: There were times when Emenike, Muriel, Ibarbo or Musa were simply the best. They were anything but expensive! Of course, you could have put money in FIFA years ago to have fun with Messi, but to win, that wouldn't have made much sense.

So, how was it from FIFA 15 onwards? The game kept getting better and the gameplay more realistic.Slowly, the difference between the players grew. In FIFA 16, FUT Draft was added as a mode in Ultimate Team. One round usually costs 15k here, but if you had FIFA Points, you could play the round with those. The packs also got more diverse, and most importantly: FIFA Ultimate Team became a very popular mode. More and more people played it, everyone wanted to be the best. Welcome to the land of pay-to-win gamers.

This combination of increased popularity and improved gameplay gave (and still gives) pay-to-win-players an advantage in order to have a better team and to win against good opponents who are still playing their starter teams. Nevertheless, it is important for us to differentiate here. If you put money into FIFA, you don't win automatically. Andabove all, not everyone can suddenly play FIFA, recognize the meta and be an amazing player.

You still need skill and have to understand the game. It's like in real football: If you put money into a club, you don't automatically win the Champions League. The person needs a concept, a plan, and needs to know how football works. At this point, greetings to Paris, Manchester and Leipzig. So we hope that you never become a pay-to-win player and annoy everyone else. Of course, we would never pay money for FIFA Points... ehe.

September giveaway EG
Click me and win great prices!

Folks, let’s be real here: Nobody likes ads, everybody likes raffles and we all wanna feel special. Right? Sign up for MyEarlyGame and you get just that: No ads, the content you wanna see & a chance to win free stuff. No brainer, really.

Alex Frieling

Alex is a writer and journalist who covers news and guides for the FIFA category. He's been playing the game since FIFA 12 and switched to EA FC 24 in 2023. Besides Ultimate Team, he loves the Career Mode. Before joining EarlyGame he worked for fcbinside.com and goal.com....