FIFA 22 arrived on 1 October 2021 as the 29th entry in EA’s football series, with Kylian Mbappé on the cover for a second straight year. EA Vancouver developed it, EA Sports published it, and it shipped on Google Stadia, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The game carries more than 17,000 players, over 700 teams, 90-plus stadiums and more than 30 leagues. It is a large package, and on the pitch it is a good one.
Trailer, via EA SPORTS FC.
What FIFA 22 gets right on the pitch
The core football is the strongest part of FIFA 22. Movement has weight. Players carry momentum through turns, absorb contact and take time to get back up to speed. The gap between a quick winger and a slow defender is felt, not just listed on a stat sheet.
Ball physics are tighter. First touches vary more. Passes that should be hard are hard, and shots that should be wild go wild.
The goalkeeper AI is the weak point. Keepers pull off saves that look impossible and then let in shots that look trivial. Defensive shape breaks down in ways that are hard to explain. These problems stand out because the rest of the play has improved around them.
Ultimate Team still runs the show
FIFA Ultimate Team remains the center of the game. It is a card-collecting economy where players build squads from packs. FIFA 22 adds new customization options and a reworked squad-building system. It is also, as always, a mode that rewards spending.
Career Mode gets a modest refresh. The new create-a-club feature lets players build a team from scratch, pick its kits and its stadium, and take it up through the leagues. It is a real addition rather than a marketing line.
Pro Clubs and the small-sided street mode return. The street mode is the most distinct thing in the package. It is fast and loose and does not pretend to be a simulation.
The platforms are not equal
FIFA 22 shipped on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The Switch version is a different, older build and lacks the features that define the game elsewhere. Anyone buying on Switch is not buying the same FIFA 22.
Stadia is the more interesting case. Google’s streaming platform was still running when FIFA 22 launched, and the game ran there. It did not run there for long. EA shut down the Stadia servers on 18 January 2023. The online servers for all other platforms were shut down on 4 November 2024.
That timeline matters. FIFA 22 was playable online for roughly three years on console and PC. On Stadia it was playable for about 15 months. A game built around live modes and online play has a shelf life, and on Stadia that shelf life was short.
The launch window, in order
EA split the rollout. The Ultimate Edition came with four days of early access. Here is how the dates fell:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 27 September 2021 | Ultimate Edition early access opens |
| 1 October 2021 | Worldwide release on all platforms |
| 18 January 2023 | Stadia online servers shut down |
| 4 November 2024 | Online servers shut down on all other platforms |
For four days, the people who paid the most played a game the rest of the audience could not touch.
Russian teams removed after the invasion
In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, EA removed Russian national teams from all versions of its football video games, starting with the 1.22 patch. Russian and Belarusian players were made ineligible for FIFA 22, except for those playing in foreign leagues.
The change was not limited to a single title. It reached every version of EA’s football video games. Whatever else is true about FIFA 22, that decision was the right one, and it was made quickly.
Ranking what actually matters
Not every feature in FIFA 22 deserves equal weight. Here is the order in which the pieces of this game matter:
- The on-pitch feel — the reason to buy this version over FIFA 21
- Ultimate Team — the mode most players will spend their time in
- Career Mode’s create-a-club — the best addition for solo players in years
- The small-sided street mode — distinct but underfed
- The Switch build — a lesser product wearing the same name
- Presentation tweaks and cosmetic modes — noise
That ranking is a judgment about the game, not a fact about the publisher.
What the score reflects
FIFA 22 holds a critic aggregate of 7.9/10 across seven outlets. That number is fair. This is a good football game with real improvements on the pitch and real problems off it.
The movement work is not marketing. It changes how the game feels in a way that is obvious immediately. That alone justifies the upgrade for anyone still on FIFA 21.
The problems are structural. Ultimate Team’s economy is built to extract money, and new customization options do not change that. The goalkeeper AI is genuinely bad in places. The Switch build is a stripped-down version sold under the same name, which is hard to defend.
The server shutdowns are the part worth watching. Online servers for Stadia went dark on 18 January 2023, and online servers for all other platforms followed on 4 November 2024. That is normal for a sports title with an annual release cycle, but it is worth saying plainly: the online side of FIFA 22 is closed. If you want to play FIFA 22 online today, the servers that supported it are gone. That is the trade-off of buying into a live-service sports game, and it arrived faster on Stadia than anywhere else.
FIFA 22 plays well, and it has been retired. Buy it for the football, not for the modes that used to live online.
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