FIFA 23 has gone full throttle with its World Cup content, but one notable mode missing is a FUT World Cup mode. Here’s why that may be!
Every World Cup, FIFA releases plenty of content to celebrate the most celebrated football tournament in the world. It only comes every four years, so it makes sense that they go all out when they do.
Although, this year, they opted for a different approach involving FIFA 23 Ultimate Team.
No FIFA 23 Ultimate Team World Cup Mode for Qatar 2022
There is no dedicated FIFA 23 Ultimate Team World Cup mode for Qatar 2022. This is a step away from past World Cups, where EA would run a FUT World Cup Mode alongside the regular FUT mode.
EA has yet to comment on why they decided not to include it in this FIFA, but there is one strong theory that players have developed.
The past two World Cup modes featured very high-rated players as rewards. At the time, this made sense because the World Cup was held in the summer.
Qatar 2022 is in the winter, only a few months after the release of FIFA 23. If EA were to introduce these sorts of high-rated players this early in the cycle, then it could crash the FIFA 23 Ultimate Team market.
But thankfully, this doesn’t mean that EA is removing the World Cup from FIFA 23 Ultimate Team completely. They are adding content in a new way that works alongside the current FUT modes.
All World Cup Content in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team
Players can earn time-sensitive World Cup player items and World Cup tokens in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team to unlock special promo World Cup player items.
The full list of content includes:
- Path To Glory World Cup Promo Player Items
- Special promo player items that can receive upgrades depending on the performance of their Nation in the World Cup.
- FIFA 23 World Cup Heroes
- This is the first collaboration with Marvel that FIFA has ever done.
- Players who pre-ordered FIFA 23 early will see a free World Cup Heroes Pack in their store!
- FUT 23 World Cup Swaps & Rewards
- You can obtain special player tokens and swap them for incredible rewards, including a FUT World Cup Icon.
- To get the best rewards, you’ll need to obtain World Cup Tokens! Use this World Cup Tokens Tracker to keep track of all the ways you can obtain these tokens.
- World Cup Icons
- World Cup Icons are replacing Icon Moments. Their ratings will fall between their Mid and Prime forms.
- These World Cup Icons feature moments in that player’s history when they led their Nation to greatness on the World Cup stage.
- World Cup FUT Moments Rewards & Challenges
There will also be plenty of Objectives and SBCs that players can do that will give them World Cup promo rewards. Although to take part in them, you’ll need to have World Cup Player Items.
Here are a few ways that you can obtain these players for your team:
- Which World Cup Starter Nation Should I Choose In FIFA 23 Ultimate Team?
- How to Get Free World Cup Player Items Rewards in FIFA 23
The FIFA 23 World Cup Event ends on January 4, 2023. This means that all of the promotions and Time Limited World Cup Player Items will no longer be available.
All World Cup themed cards, such as Heroes and Stars, are not limited and will remain in your club after the event concludes. It is just the World Cup Player Items who will be removed.
You can see a complete breakdown of the World Cup Promo Event schedule here.
FIFA 2014 & FIFA 2018 World Cup Modes
The reason many players believed FIFA 23 would have its own dedicated FUT World Cup Mode was that FIFA 2014 and FIFA 2018 both had it.
So it made sense that FIFA 23 would also have it. But this is also the first time the World Cup is released so close to the initial release of a FIFA game.
So it’s not too strange to see that EA Sports took a completely different approach this time around to keep players engaged.
FIFA 2014 World Cup Mode Explained
- Featured a mode that was completely separate from FIFA 2014 Ultimate Team. It was a free update for any FIFA 2014 owner.
- Players could not use the World Cup FUT players in the regular Ultimate Team mode and vice versa.
- Every World Cup Pack came with a Gold Pack for the regular Ultimate Team.
- This created two separate markets that split the player base.
- Only players from the 32 nations in the World Cup were available in the World Cup mode.
- World Cup players were untradable and could not be purchased in the Transfer Market.
- Players could only have one squad in their World Cup FUT Mode.
- Although, any extra players could still be kept in their Club.
You can see a detailed video from EA Sports explaining the mode when it was first announced here:
FIFA 2018 World Cup Mode Explained
- The FIFA 2018 World Cup Mode was called the Festival of Futball Event.
- It was a completely different mode.
- Chemistry Links were tweaked in the Festival of Futball to include Confederations and Nations.
- This made it slightly easier for players to form links.
- Similar to 2014, FIFA 2018 World Cup Player Items and regular FUT Player Items were locked to their respective modes.
- There were Dynamic Items that updated with the performance of their real-life counterparts.
