As we continue to look back at the year that was in sports games, we are now looking at Franchise modes and how they changed. Each mode is ranked primarily on changes and improvements, with overall pre-existing strengths and weaknesses less strongly considered beyond slotting within a tier.
Here is how the franchise mode updates for 2025 shook out.
D-Tier
EA FC 26
Claims of stagnation and disinterest in developing the modes that don’t serve as a cash vacuum have dogged nearly all annual sports franchises in recent years, but the poster child for the issue remains the franchise that made Ultimate Team the norm.
EA FC 26 was not without efforts to put some tweaks and changes into the franchise mode, but it’s easy to see that it still feels like an afterthought. The addition of live challenges in the mode feels a bit like trying to fix offline play by making it more like online play, while changes like “new managers now change their clubs’ tactics” are the type of update that makes you less impressed and more irked that it took so long. Interactions and archetypes, a common tweak for this year, are here, but there is nothing to blow gamers’ socks off.
Madden 26
It’s not a good sign for changes inbound when the first thing developers can think to brag about for their new mode is the aesthetic changes to your coach’s model. Liking what your character looks like in Madden 26 is not unimportant, but it’s not exactly a core consideration for most sports gamers in their franchise play.
Likewise, a heading acknowledging a seemingly-obvious thing, coordinators actually mattering for team performance in this case, is “finally” here, isn’t a ringing endorsement for how much this mode has mattered to the game in recent years. Storylines are now here to put a little variety in, while wear and tear reflecting the play-to-play damage players endure is the showpiece on-field change.
NHL 26
Not to make a trend too apparent, but once again, an EA series shows updates to the franchise mode that largely come down to minor aesthetics and things you can’t believe weren’t already a part of it. On the former in NHL 26, there are conversations with minor impacts on the way your season plays out as a result. On the latter, there’s the ability to access game box scores and player performance logs, which would otherwise be considered fairly basic tools for being a virtual GM.
Perhaps the biggest change here comes in something borrowed from a game that will appear later on this list in the form of new factors in contract negotiations. With players considering more than just pay levels and length, you gain a bit more complexity in your offseason angling.
C-Tier
NBA 2K26
This is a situation where a look at overall value vs yearly assessment can be a bit unkind, as the MyEras option in NBA 2K26, in which you can start a career mode at various times in NBA history, then play it out with accurate classes and structural changes, remains incredibly cool. It’s not new to this year, however, and so it doesn’t move the needle for 2K on the tier list, which is why it still sits at the bottom of C-tier.
Like the games above, the majority of changes trumpeted ahead of the game’s release were related to aesthetic options and the introduction of simpler storyline arcs. The biggest change, which raised it a level on our list, was less an innovation and more the removal of an asinine decision, allowing for unranked career modes and, with it, the ability to customize the details of your career mode because absolutely nobody on Earth was asking for the ability to play a ranked solo mode.
MLB The Show 25
With Road to the Show a popular option, the franchise mode in MLB The Show 25 also comes with competition for solo long-haul modes. With the latest edition, developers decided to focus a lot of their attention on updates on something that couldn’t come into play in Road to the Show by emphasizing changes to the free agency period.
In the latest version, free agency was reworked in an attempt to better replicate the real free agency market, most notably in the introduction of market-setting big-name players and more individualized motivations for players. Timing is a bigger factor in not just who you can sign, but at what financial level to put more skill into managing your offseason.
College Football 26
As the second game in the revived series, it’s understandable why there are fewer extreme changes in the Dynasty Mode of College Football 26, as it was designed off a relatively blank slate just one year prior. In addition to incorporating the same wear and tear changes as Madden, making it important to manage your players’ physical well-being in a punishing sport, the big updates were to the transfer portal.
The transfer portal is an omnipresent consideration in the modern college football landscape, so it’s understandable why getting it just right is so important to developers. With changes to how scouting works and the ability to better manage how you allocate your recruiting resources, the game was a moderate step forward, which fans will hope to see further developed next summer.
B-Tier
PGA Tour 2K25
Off the top, PGA Tour 2K25 comes with a lot of the common bells and whistles you’ve seen elsewhere, like quests and conversation-based relationships. The game puts an emphasis on building up your relationships with sponsors and growing your fanbase through your play and your off-the-course behavior.
What sees the title boosted up into the second-highest level awarded here is a change that meaningfully addresses one of the biggest problems all franchise modes face: time commitment. While long-term storylines are fun to follow, not every gamer has the time to actually play them out. Dynamic simulation in 2K25 allows players to progress their seasons without playing every shot of every round of every tournament to try out a longer play on a shorter commitment.
A-Tier
F1 25
Leading the way for changed franchise modes in 2025 is F1 25, which most dramatically reworked its mode, and not just in the addition of an 11th team to the grid using either the team from this year’s Hollywood release or the game’s own story mode.
In the past, career mode was as a driver-owner, but this time, that was off the table. Instead, you serve as the owner managing two drivers with the ability to race on the weekend. This is the most significant change seen, as it creates interesting decisions about prioritizing a lead racer vs. focusing on a team build for a genuinely new challenge.
This is how we felt change was handled in 2025, but what’s ahead in 2026 is to be seen. What franchise mode are you most excited for next time out?
