FIFA Rivals Launches, Partners with Adidas, OneFootball

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FIFA Rivals Launch ⚽️

FIFA Rivals has officially launched, marking it the first game FIFA has licensed since their divorce from EA Sports. And it’s built using blockchain.

The mobile football arcade game is developed by NFL Rivals creators Mythical Games and is their second major sports title.

The launch has been a success, seeing the mobile game rise to 5th in all sports games on the App Store ahead of EAFC and eFootball, with a 4.8-star rating.

Mythical Games & NFL Rivals Success 📱

The launch follows 2 years of success with Mythical’s NFL sister game — NFL Rivals — which has become a blueprint for them to follow.

The metrics since its launch in April 2023 have been impressive:

• ~$13 million in sales volume

• ~ 7 million downloads

• 1.75 million transactions

• Over 200,000 owners of digital collectibles

Having spoken on stage with John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games, very recently at SEG3, it was easy to see why there is so much excitement for FIFA Rivals.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the things he said:

• They view FIFA Rivals to have a 10-20x larger potential market than NFL Rivals because football is so popular and global.

• EA FC Mobile game, when FIFA licensed it, had more than 500 million downloads, and 50 million daily active users during the World Cup Tournaments… on Android alone. This makes them incredibly bullish for what could be possible with FIFA Rivals.

• They have been taken aback by just how global the game is, and how rabid the fandom in football is.

• They are being approached to partner with not only teams, leagues and brand sponsors, but also Telcos and Governments themselves.

If NFL Rivals was Mythical Games proving out the success of their model, and tweaking to create a powerful flywheel for their players, then FIFA Rivals could be the accelerant that takes them to another level.

And we’re seeing the early embers of that — with Venture Beat reporting that the soft launch of the game has already garnered 150,000 players in 3 countries.

Since their launch on the 12th June, FIFA Rivals has already amassed over 1 million games played. For context, NFL Rivals amassed 115 million+ in the 15 months between April 2023 and September 2024.

Partnerships with Adidas & OneFootball 🤝

Alongside the launch, FIFA Rivals comes with two key partnerships:

1) Adidas: Adidas brand and products will be featured across FIFA Rivals, providing players with access to exclusive digital items, including kits, jerseys, and shoe releases inspired by the brand’s rich soccer heritage. The deal is multi-year.

2) OneFootball: OneFootball, via OneFootball Club, have also signed a multi-year partnership with FIFA Rivals, which will see them build out cross-domain identities, token payment rails and tokenised assets across both their ecosystems.

It will be interesting to see how big an impact these two partnerships have, but in Adidas and OneFootball — Mythical Games have two cultural cornerstones of global football as partners.

Officially licensed merchandise in-game also adds to the authenticity of the product, especially considering the fact FIFA Rivals will not initially have any official club jerseys in the game.

Analysis & Concluding Thoughts 🧠

“Playable Game, but a Tradeable Economy”

It’s something I’ve heard John Linden say now on panels, the Sporting Crypto podcast and various other outlets several times, and it is that simple when you boil it down.

No successful consumer experience in crypto has focused on only the ‘trading’ part, and those who do often see fleeting, speculation-fuelled success.

It’s a playbook that many have failed to create in consumer crypto:

(1) A great experience that regular consumers love
(2) That integrates blockchain to enhance the game
(3) Isn’t overly financialised
(4) Is mobile native/ready
(5) Uses big money IP to attract millions of users
(6) Is not pay-to-win

It’s a balancing act that Mythical Games have seemingly figured out. Mythical Games have so far obfuscated that by tying purchases to a dollar amount, and not the Mythos token that is secured by the Mythos Chain, which FIFA Rivals use.

They have also managed to solve a business problem — they’re monetising better than most games. Their Quick Trade allows users to swap several cards for one, which in turn increases transaction volume for Mythical Games, whilst offering more liquidity and a better experience for their players. Win-win.

Simply put, Quick Trade allows Mythical Games to monetise players who don’t even deposit into the game.

That sounds crazy, so let’s walk this through step by step.

On stage at SEG3, Linden also said that 80-85% of the players on their NFL Rivals marketplace usually have a ‘bid’ on them.

This is essentially the price someone is willing to pay for that player.

A user can automatically sell their player, for that price, satisfying the ‘bid’ and creating the transaction.

With Quick Trade, Mythical allow users to do that in a batch transaction — so they can sell 4 cards at once, and automatically transfer the funds to buy a player they want, in a trade, all in one fell swoop, instantaneously.

To summarise:

(1) I want to buy Lionel Messi’s FIFA Rivals card for $50
(2) I can’t afford it. I only have $30 in my account.
(3) I’m willing to trade for the card by offering 2 of my players worth $20 combined and the $30 in my account.
(4) With Quick Trade, it automatically sells my 2 cards to the highest bidder and transfers the proceeds to the person selling Lionel Messi.
(5) I now own a Lionel Messi card
(6) Mythical Games were paid 3 times on that transaction (Selling my two players, and selling the Lionel Messi from my seller’s account)

Web3 businesses are often accused of using tech for tech’s sake. But when they start solving real user and business problems, they accelerate ferociously in terms of adoption and often don’t get the credit they deserve. (See Stablecoins in finance).

The edge that Mythical also have is in mobile gaming, a relatively immature market in blockchain terms.

It seems as though many are chasing after the next AAA hit in blockchain gaming, whilst Mythical have concentrated on accessible mobile games.

And when combined with Football, which is a global game and skews less affluent, it maximises their reach in a way that isn’t possible if you are concentrating on browser-based or console-based games.

Consumer crypto needs its ‘stablecoin moment’.

And we may be seeing the beginnings of it, and much of it is happening in, adjacent or connected to sport in some way.

Mythical Games has mainstream, global success with NFL Rivals, and I’m sure they will see even more with FIFA Rivals.

Courtyard are seeing incredible volume with their tokenised trading card marketplace and digital repacking business.

The idea of using blockchain is starting to shift from a nice-to-have to true business model innovation that disrupts incumbents.

And I hope that continues in consumer, and this is not just a false dawn.

More Sports & Web3 Stories

• Barcelona Footballers Probed for NFT Scam in $3.4M Shirtum Case (Read more here)

• Shaq’s $1.8M FTX Settlement (Read more here)

• Sports recruiter acquires crypto firm, plans 150MW Texas mining site (Read more here)

• Cristiano Ronaldo and Binance Launch 6th NFT drop (Read more here)

• By Vincent Schalk: Identity Liquidity: The 1b User Mass Adoption Opportunity (Read more here)

• By Jake Cvengros: The Most Compelling Sponsorship Asset in Sports (Read more here)

General ‘Stuff’ that Could Impact You

• Stripe continues crypto push with Privy acquisition (Read more here)

• Walmart, Amazon consider issuing their own stablecoins (Read more here)

• Sony launches ‘Soneium For All’ incubator for games and apps (Read more here)

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