Netflix Announces Free FIFA World Cup Game for Summer 2026

Netflix is making a high-stakes play to turn the FIFA World Cup 2026 into a games hit, not just a streaming event. The company and FIFA unveiled a newly reimagined FIFA football simulation game that will arrive in summer 2026, exclusive to Netflix Games and free for Netflix members.

The pitch is straightforward, but the stakes are bigger than a tie-in. Netflix said players will be able to jump in solo or with friends online, using a phone as the controller, with support planned for select TVs in certain countries and a broader rollout over time. That makes the game feel less like a one-off marketing extra and more like an attempt to build a real, always-on football title inside Netflix’s ecosystem.

Delphi Interactive is handling both development and publishing, with founder and CEO Casper Daugaard saying the team wants to make the FIFA game the most fun, approachable and global football game ever created. For Netflix, the World Cup provides a built-in audience of millions of football fans across the United States, Canada and Mexico, where the tournament will be staged, and across the much larger global audience that follows FIFA’s biggest event.

Netflix Games president Alain Tascan called the World Cup the “cultural event of 2026,” a framing that makes the strategy clear. Netflix is not just chasing licensed spectacle; it is trying to use one of the few sports properties that can cut across regions, ages and game preferences to make people actually boot up a game inside a subscription service they already pay for.

The FIFA name itself gives the project extra weight. FIFA’s long-running partnership with EA Sports ended in 2022, and EA kept the football franchise alive under the EA Sports FC label. That split left FIFA without a major branded game for several years, so this Netflix release marks a notable return for the FIFA brand to the gaming conversation.

Gianni Infantino called the project a major collaboration and a “historic step” for FIFA’s push into football gaming. Whether it becomes a genuine challenger to the established football game audience or just a World Cup companion piece will depend on how well Netflix can turn a familiar license into something people want to keep playing after the final whistle.