Miles Jacobson, studio director of Sports Interactive, confirmed Football Manager 22 has sold more than a million units for PC and Mac. Many fans believe FM22 to be one of the best installments thus far and this data seems to prove just that. Sales figures also suggest sales will remain steady despite the impending launch of the 2022/23 soccer season. As the leading analysts pore over the pre-season data to provide non-partisan football opinions and advice for punters ahead of the next nine months, FM 22 continues to fly off the shelves despite being days away from becoming outdated.
Football Manager 22 exceeds 1 million copies sold
This million-plus sales includes gamers who download via GamePass as well as other available platforms for on PC. Within three months of the FM 22 release, Jacobson took to his official Twitter account to reveal no less than 1.5 million people had played the game as of mid-December 2021. In total, the game had simulated over 120 million soccer matches within its game engine.
This latest release has received widespread approval from the FM community. On Steam, it has achieved an average rating of 9 out of 10. Meanwhile leading soccer magazine FourFourTwo gave it 5 stars and PCMag gave it 4.5 stars. Although the FM22 match engine looks and plays better than ever, with additional managerial mechanics adding further immersivity to the game, there is still plenty the FM community would like from next season’s release.
New features FM fans want to see in FM 2023
One major pain point for FM22 and its predecessors is the transfer market. Although there some realism over the players that AI-controlled clubs sign, the transfer fees appear rather unbalanced. AI-controlled clubs typically bid way below a player’s true market value and will walk away from the negotiating table if players demand appropriate market value. All which can leave star players frustrated at being prevented a big-money switch. On the flip side, when managers bid for a player at an AI-controlled club, you will be coaxed to pay well over their market value. Many fans of the series are hoping for a more balanced transfer market in the future.
Football Manager 22 ushered in a new era of player-to-manager interactions, providing a deeper layer of conversation allowing managers to invest more time in their man management skills. Whether it’s picking up an out-of-form player or acknowledging a player’s recent scoring spree, these conversations bring much-needed depth to the game. However, they could go much further. The ability to compromise and get unhappy players back on side or touch base with a potential transfer target before the transfer window opens would further serve to ramp up engagement levels.
Football Manager players will also be hoping more of Europe’s biggest soccer clubs return to the game. Italian giants, Juventus, are one such team that have been unlicensed in FM for some time, due to their exclusive licensing arrangement with Konami. However, this deal with the Japanese gaming firm is ending, allowing Juve to surely return in their authentic form instead of going by ‘Zebre’.
Last but by no means least, many FM fans call for Sports Interactive to integrate women’s football into Football Manager 23. With the England women’s soccer team reaching the EURO 2022 semi-finals this summer and the interest in the English Women’s Super League growing year-on-year, this would be a big statement for Jacobson and FM to make. Of course, this would involve building a brand-new women’s FM database entirely from scratch, which is no easy feat. Even if it’s too soon for FM23, there is a general feeling that the inclusion of the women’s game into the world’s most successful soccer management sim is only just around the corner. For now, FM lovers have the solace that they are still able to immerse themselves in the most playable version the series, which now dates back to 1992 in its previous run as Championship Manager.
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