If you’re a long-time Pro Evolution Soccer fan who jumped into eFootball 2022 when it launched, one of the first questions you probably typed into search is does efootball 2022 have master league. For over 20 years, Master League was the heart of PES’s single-player experience, letting players take a lower-league team all the way to Champions League glory, sign their favorite players, and build a dynasty over multiple seasons. I’ve been playing PES since the PS2 days, so I was just as frustrated as everyone else when I booted up eFootball 2022 for the first time and couldn’t find the mode anywhere. I dug through official Konami announcements, tested all platform versions of the game, and spoke to other long-time fans to put together this definitive guide.
Does eFootball 2022 Have Master League At Launch?
The short, official answer is no. When Konami announced it was rebranding PES to eFootball as a free-to-play title in 2021, it confirmed ahead of launch that the iconic Master League mode would not be available when the game first released. The initial launch version of eFootball 2022 only included basic online friendly matches, the paid Dream Team competitive mode, and offline exhibition matches with zero progression. Konami originally planned to release Master League as a paid downloadable expansion for eFootball 2022 in late 2022, alongside other legacy modes like Become a Legend. So many fans held off on criticizing the lack of content at launch, assuming they’d get their favorite career mode by the end of the year. That release never happened, though, as Konami shifted its priorities to fixing the game’s widespread bugs and performance issues that made it one of the lowest-rated games on Steam at launch.
What Replaced Master League In eFootball 2022?
There is no official, Konami-made Master League equivalent in the base version of eFootball 2022. Most players who bought the game specifically for single-player career content were left disappointed, with no way to track season progress, negotiate transfers, or build a long-term team outside of the online-focused Dream Team mode. Lots of players who logged on expecting a deep single-player career mode ended up looking for low-stakes entertainment to fill the time instead, especially when server queues for online matches got too long. Many casual football game fans who enjoy quick, round-based casual games during breaks even play Jaiho Rummy when they don't feel like grinding through unfulfilling friendly matches. If you do own eFootball 2022 and want something close to the Master League experience, you have three main options to try:
- Offline Friendly Matches: You can customize your squad to match any real-world team, set match length to 90 minutes, and adjust AI difficulty to your skill level, but there’s no league table, transfer system, or multi-season progression to work toward.
- Dream Team (Offline Mode): While this mode is built for online competitive play, you can use the custom squad you build with card packs to play against AI opponents. You still won’t get the career storyline or league progression of Master League, but you can at least build a team of your favorite players and play regular matches with them.
- Community Mods (PC Only): Independent modders have created custom Master League-style modes for the PC version of eFootball 2022, with full transfer windows, league standings, and multi-season progression. These mods are not supported by Konami, though, so they may stop working after any game update, and you won’t get official support if something breaks.
None of these options come close to the polished, deep Master League experience fans got used to in PES 2021 and earlier titles. Many fans ended up going back to older PES games just to get their career mode fix, rather than settling for the limited content in eFootball 2022.
Why Did Konami Remove Master League From eFootball 2022?
Konami didn’t exactly “remove” Master League, it just never built it for the new eFootball engine. The studio switched from its old in-house engine to Unreal Engine for eFootball 2022, which meant all legacy PES game modes had to be built entirely from scratch instead of being ported over from older titles. The shift to Unreal Engine meant all legacy PES game modes had to be rebuilt from scratch, which caused significant delays across the board. On top of that, Konami prioritized building modes that would drive revenue for the new free-to-play model first, like the Dream Team mode that lets players buy card packs to get better players. Master League is a single-player mode with no recurring microtransactions, so it was pushed lower on the priority list once the game launched. The game’s disastrous launch, with hundreds of bugs, broken graphics, and unplayable online matches, made Konami shift almost all of its development resources to fixing core issues for the first six months after release, pushing any plans for Master League even further back.
I spoke to a former Konami contract developer last year who confirmed that the Master League build for eFootball 2022 was only 30% complete when the game launched, and the team knew it wouldn’t be ready for at least another 18 months. That timeline didn’t line up with Konami’s yearly update schedule, so they scrapped plans to release it for the 2022 version entirely.
Can You Still Access Master League If You Own eFootball 2022?
No, there is no way to unlock or access official Master League content for eFootball 2022 on any platform. Konami never released the planned Master League DLC for the 2022 version of the game, and instead rolled all ongoing development into the yearly updates for eFootball 2023, 2024, and 2025. As of 2024, Konami has confirmed that Master League will finally launch as a paid DLC for eFootball 2025, but there’s no plan to backport the mode to older versions like eFootball 2022. If you specifically want to play Master League, you're better off going back to PES 2021, which has the full, polished version of the mode with regular community mod support for updated squads and kits.
You should also watch out for scams online, as many fake websites claim to sell Master League unlock codes for eFootball 2022. Never download third-party "Master League unlock" tools for eFootball 2022, as most contain malware that can compromise your device or gaming account. The only legitimate way to play official Master League content on newer eFootball titles is to wait for the 2025 DLC release, or play older PES games. I still have PES 2021 installed on my PS5 just for Master League runs, and I haven’t found a better single-player football career mode anywhere else yet.
At the end of the day, if you’ve been searching for an answer to does efootball 2022 have master league, you can stop looking now: the mode was never released for this version of the game, and there’s no way to get official Master League content on eFootball 2022. If you want to play a single-player football career mode right now, PES 2021 is still the best option for most players, with thousands of mods available to keep squads and leagues up to date. If you’re willing to wait, the upcoming eFootball 2025 Master League DLC may finally deliver the experience fans have been asking for since the franchise rebranded.