Football Manager 2018 Steam stats soar in wake of World Cup

Announced via Twitter, FM head honcho Miles Jacobson says Football Manager 2018 averages 500,000 hours per day on Steam, with 553,806 hours clocked yesterday alone. Jacobson says over 270 million hours have also been recorded since launch on Steam last year, and that its peak concurrent players yesterday was 67,524.

Steam Charts identifies the same—and suggests peak concurrent numbers have jumped following this summer's World Cup.

Last week I was happy with nearly 60k concurrent players of #FM18 via Steam. Today we've thrashed that, currently at 67,098!Across all our games on Steam, iOS & Android, over 1.2m of you played last month - FM/M/T18 most popular, with 800k players.#fmsundaysJuly 22, 2018

Another Sunday, another record - now nearly 9 months since release, our peak concurrency today on Steam was 67,524 for #FM18It's also averaging circa 500k hours being played every day, with 553,806 hours played yesterday - and over 270m hours played in total to date via Steam.July 29, 2018

With its expanded Medical Centre, overhauled graphics engine and story-generating Dynamics System, I thoroughly enjoyed Football Manager 2018 at launch. So much so, that I'm still playing the same save—as are a number of other virtual coaches, it seems.

With the long game in mind, keeping things fresh in FM is crucial. To this end, here are the 50 best Football Manager 2018 wonderkids to replace tired legs years into the future.