5 out of 5: EA Sports FC still hasn’t missed a World Cup winner since 2010

There are algorithms that would almost overshadow the best tipsters of Mon Petit Prono. For the fifth consecutive football World Cup, EA Sports FC correctly predicted the tournament winner before kickoff.This time, it was Spain that lifted the trophy on Sunday, defeating Argentina 1-0 thanks to a goal by Ferran Torres in extra time, confirming exactly what the publisher had predicted just days before the tournament began.

An algorithm that has not been wrong in 16 years

The method has remained the same for years. EA runs simulations of the entire tournament, from the group stage to the final, based on data from its own game. The results of these simulations are then published ahead of the tournament. Since 2010, this prediction has never been wrong about the eventual winner. The publisher correctly predicted Spain in 2010, Germany in 2014, France in 2018, Argentina in 2022, and Spain again this year.

As soon as the final whistle blew, the official EA Sports FC account on X was quick to celebrate the achievement, noting that Spain had been guided to victory more than 11 million times by players of EA Sports FC 26 and FC Mobile.

We called it. You played it. Spain made it a reality.

Five predictions in a row, and @SEFutbol lifted the trophy 11M+ times across #FC26 and #FCMobile.

Congratulations on your second star ⭐️⭐️#TheWorldsGame pic.twitter.com/F4cMoboKVa

— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) July 19, 2026

A coronation built on an ironclad defense

On the pitch, Spain built its title on remarkable defensive solidity, conceding only a single goal throughout the entire tournament, against Belgium. On its way to the final, the Roja brushed aside tough opponents such as Portugal and France, the latter having been comprehensively dominated in the semi-final. The triumph also rests on the emergence of two players who are barely 19 years old, Lamine Yamal in attack and Pau Cubarsí in defense, both playing in their first World Cup.

The tournament's individual awards confirm this Spanish sweep. Rodri, already the 2024 Ballon d'Or winner, was voted best player of the competition, Unai Simon received the best goalkeeper trophy, and Pau Cubarsí the best young player award. The Golden Boot, for its part, went to Kylian Mbappé and his ten goals, while Lionel Messi stayed silent in the final, undoubtedly closing his World Cup chapter for good with Argentina.

A prediction that also had its place among the AIs

Even before the tournament began, we had indeed questioned five generative AIs about the outcome of this 2026 World Cup.Of the five chatbots tested, two correctly identified the eventual winner: Claude, Anthropic’s AI, which had predicted a Spanish victory in the final against France, and Perplexity, which also backed Spain, but against Brazil. ChatGPT and Gemini, for their part, picked a victory for Les Bleus, while Mistral Vibe leaned toward a Brazilian victory. This gives EA Sports FC two serious competitors in automated forecasting, even if the publisher is currently the only one to string together five correct predictions in a row.

An algorithm less comfortable with other sports

This success nevertheless remains specific to football. On EA’s other sports franchises, the results are considerably more mixed. For the Super Bowl, the Madden simulation correctly predicted only eight of the last fifteen editions, though it did pull off an impressive feat by correctly guessing both the winner and the exact score of Super Bowl 49. By contrast, EA’s algorithm has failed to deliver a correct prediction for the Stanley Cup for fourteen years in a row.

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Source: Video Games Chronicle