When I was a kid I went through a phase. A terrible phase. For about a year, I totally liked the NFL. Why? Because I played Madden 92 on the Sega Mega Drive. Man, I seem to remember actually watching Ice Hockey for a while.
What was I thinking? Probably the same thing that many Americans are thinking after falling in love with FIFA and then soccer as a result.
EA has released a pretty cool infographic. Well, it’s kinda cool. It’s basically just a massive ‘whee, look how great FIFA and, by extension, EA is”. The infographic is interesting though, and makes a pretty strong case that FIFA is helping the US to love soccer.
While FIFA is no doubt having an impact — and it turns out that a lot of Americans are playing the game — I suspect that the US’s performance in this year’s World Cup must also have been a turning point. They played well and were consistently one of the competition’s most exciting teams. I think it’s a bit of a chicken and the egg situation. More people were interested in FIFA because they’re interested in soccer.
Either way, word is spreading. I don’t expect soccer to overtake any of the big sports in the US, but there’s definitely a growing interest in soccer. That’s a cool thing.
Via Polygon
Comments
10 responses to “FIFA Is Making America Love Soccer”
During the SNES days I was obsessed with EA sports game. I first bought Madden 93 and could not put it down – Hail Mary’s ever pass. It was so much fun playing NFL, Ice hockey and FIFA, but after SNES I stopped buying sports games
Gotta love the hail mary pass!
I played with a mate on Megadrive and this was our tactic also.
it never failed!
Must have been a popular tactic, as this was the go to for my mate and I too. That and the running back sweep where you would run back into your in goal only to out run the entire opposing team and go the full length of the field for the touch down.
Oh yeah, and mandatory fake punting and going for extra points after a touch down.
hahah fake punting, last resort.
I think all up everyone used the same 3 plays!
I think Dallas Cowboy’s were the team of choice?
You know it! Emmitt Smith all the way.
I got interested in the NFL after playing TV Sports: Football on the Amiga.
“Hi, mom!”
The last generation or so has grown up playing football in school which is turning into a bigger fanbase for the sport. A lot of ex-players like Beckham or Brad Friedel are also doing a lot to promote the game over there which can only be a good thing imo. It will be a long time before it catches on like college football though, some things are ingrained in their culture, but given enough time, maybe 20-30 years, there could be enough of a base to have a football pyramid like you see across Europe’s leagues
I’m a big NBA fan, I loved it as a kid but went off it as I aged. Got back into it 6 or so years ago and I must say that the NBA2k series really helped get up to date with the state of the league and who was who quickly.
For a while, I thought they were saying Clint Dempsey was 9.6 metres tall.