Here's How To Make The Most Of The FC 27 Early Access Window

Published Sep 17, 2026, 3:11 AM EDT Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. Booting up EA Sports FC 27 for the first time during early access can be overwhelming, as you're met with the freedom to do just about anything from creating your Ultimate Team to starting your player or manager career, or heading to The Grounds to start competing with others online in Rush or Clubs game modes. Alas, everyone will approach their first few days in FC 27 differently, and there's technically no wrong way to approach it, but we're going to give you our version of an optimized approach so that every game mode gets a bit of love during early access. FC 27 Early Access Release Time There are two times you need to keep an eye on for the FC 27 early access release. The first is for PC players only, who can access the game from 11pm on Thursday, September 17. For any other platforms, the game is live from midnight in your local region. This means that, once again, players in New Zealand will be the first to play. It's a well-known trick for players to change the region of their accounts or consoles temporarily to access the game sooner, but this is done at your own risk. Is There An EA Play Trial For FC 27? Yes! The EA Play 10-hour free trial returns for FC 27, and it can be played shortly after the game goes into early access at 4am GMT on Friday, September 18. It's not known exactly why the trial is delayed compared to the full launch, but if you have an active EA Play subscription, you can start playing FC 27 during the early access window. You can even use it as a demo to decide whether you want to commit to buying the full game, something many players admit to doing. After all, it's much cheaper to pay for one month of EA Play than risk playing a full game that you do not like. What To Do During The FC 27 Early Access Window As we've already pointed out, there are a few different ways to approach FC 27 during the early access window, and you may have a game mode you care about more than others, but if you're looking to maximize your time during the early access period, you can follow our suggestions. Get All Tutorials Done ASAP One of the best things you can do early on to make the rest of your playtime smoother is complete all tutorials across the various game modes. These will be especially prevalent this year with big changes in Ultimate Team and a brand new game mode in The Grounds. Completing some tutorials may also grant rewards for the relevant game mode. Getting these dealt with early on means you can then just enjoy each game mode without having to deal with pop-ups and gameplay stoppages when you do eventually get round to it. Don't Spend Any Ultimate Team Points (Yet) It can be tempting to just spend whatever point you're granted if you've purchased the Ultimate Edition of FC 27, but it's widely regarded that the pack luck in the early stages of the game can be quite poor, and you instead want to save those points for when much better promo packs are available in the store. There are still plenty of ways to earn packs through gameplay in the meantime, so save your points until you're going to get a much better, and maybe even guaranteed return, from them. Complete The Grounds Milestones The Grounds is a brand-new living world that will house Clubs and Rush game modes as well as a ton of fun mini games. Within this world, there will be four mentors; Kylian Mbappé, Chloe Kelly, Alex Hunter, and Paulo Dybala. Each of these with have milestones to complete across The Grounds, so getting in ASAP and completing their objectives prevents you from having to repeat any tasks you may have already completed before talking to them. If you're a trophy or achievement hunter, you also need to complete these milestones for 100% completion, so it's best to get them taken care of nice and early. Grind Out FUT Objectives & SBCs If you play a lot of Ultimate Team, the best time to start working your way through the early objectives is during early access. Requirements are usually very low and only require you to play a number of games across the offline and online game modes. The same goes for the early SBCs, which are worth getting done early so that they're not clogging up your feed for the remainder of the game. The rewards from both objectives and SBCs in the early game are very valuable for helping you increase the value of your club, and this will all ultimately help you upgrade your team, so you've got some of the fastest attackers and strongest defenders, and you can enter the online game modes without being at too much of a disadvantage. EA Sports FC 27 Released September 25, 2026 ESRB Everyone / Users Interact, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) Developer(s) EA Canada, EA Romania Publisher(s) EA Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Multiplayer, Local Co-Op Cross-Platform Play PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC // PS4 & Xbox One Genre(s) Sports, Simulation