If you stopped playing eFootball shortly after its rocky initial launch, you’re far from alone. I put it down within a week of its first release, frustrated by clunky controls, constant game-breaking bugs, and a lack of core features that made Pro Evolution Soccer such a beloved franchise for decades. I recently booted it up again on a whim after seeing positive chatter from the community, to answer the question many lapsed players have: has eFootball improved enough to be worth your time?
Gameplay Fixes That Answer the Question: Has eFootball Improved?
When I first started testing the latest build, the first thing I noticed was how different the moment-to-moment gameplay feels, and it immediately confirms that has eFootball improved for the better. The biggest change is the complete overhaul of the passing system, which was almost unplayable at launch, with random, unresponsive inputs that made building attacks feel like a gamble. Ball physics now feel weighty and context-aware, so a soft pass to a winger behaves very differently from a long cross into the box, just like real football.
Defensive gameplay has also received massive upgrades. At launch, AI defenders would either stand completely still as attackers ran past them, or charge forward recklessly and leave huge gaps in your back line. Now, defensive AI makes intelligent decisions, tracking runs properly and holding their position unless you tell them to push forward. Manual defending actually feels rewarding too, with well-timed tackles and interceptions feeling earned, rather than the result of random game mechanics. I played 10 full matches in my first week back, and only encountered one minor animation glitch, compared to three or four bugs per match at launch.
New Game Modes and Feature Updates
One of the biggest complaints at launch was the complete lack of game modes beyond basic online and offline matches. The dev team has spent the last few years rolling out highly requested features, many directly sourced from community feedback on official forums and social media. Dream Team mode, the game’s competitive squad building mode, is no longer the pay-to-win mess it was at launch, and you can earn top-tier players just by completing weekly in-game challenges, no real money required.
Cross-platform play is another long-awaited feature that’s now fully implemented, so you can play with friends no matter if they’re on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox, and your progression carries over across all devices if you link your account. Some of the most requested features added in the last 18 months include:
It’s clear the development team is actually listening to player feedback, rather than pushing features no one asked for. Every monthly patch notes post includes direct responses to common community complaints, which is a refreshing change from the silence players got in the first year after launch.
What Still Needs Work in eFootball
For all its improvements, eFootball still isn’t perfect, and there are a few lingering issues that might turn some players away. The biggest ongoing problem is server stability during peak playing hours, especially for ranked competitive matches. I’ve had two matches disconnect halfway through in the last month, both when I was minutes away from winning a promotion to the next rank, which is incredibly frustrating. The dev team has rolled out three server updates in the last two months to fix this, so it’s getting better, but it’s still not 100% reliable.
The main menu interface is still clunky and slow to navigate, and it takes far too long to get from the home screen to a quick play match. You also still can’t customize your menu layout, which is a small but annoying oversight for players who use certain modes more often than others. Another letdown for fans of smaller leagues is that many lower-tier European, South American, and Asian teams still have generic player faces and missing team badges, even for popular clubs with large fan bases. These issues are all minor compared to the game-breaking bugs at launch, but they’re still noticeable if you play regularly.
Should You Return to eFootball Now?
Whether eFootball is worth picking up again depends almost entirely on what you want out of a football game. If you’re a casual player who just wants to play a few matches with friends every week, it’s absolutely worth downloading now. Cross-play works seamlessly, the controls are intuitive, and matches feel fun and fair, with very few random mechanics that decide the outcome for you.
If you’re a competitive player who wants to climb the ranked ladder, anti-cheat updates have made the ranked mode far more enjoyable than it was even a year ago. I’ve played more than 30 ranked matches in the last month, and only encountered one player using an exploit, compared to one out of every three matches a year ago. The ranked reward system is also far more generous now, so you get meaningful prizes for climbing the tiers, even if you don’t reach the top rank.
That said, if you only play football games for deep single-player career modes like the old PES Master League, you might want to wait a little longer. The mode has been delayed multiple times, and while the dev team says it’s coming in the next major update, there’s no firm release date yet.
At the end of the day, the answer to has eFootball improved is a resounding yes for most players. It’s come an incredibly long way from its messy launch, with fixes to almost all of the core issues that turned players away in the first place. You don’t have to spend any money to enjoy 90% of the game’s features, and the core gameplay loop is fun, rewarding, and true to the realistic football experience that made PES so popular for so many years. If you’ve been on the fence about giving it another go, there’s no better time to download it and try it out for yourself.