FIFA game predicts World Cup winner again
EA’s FIFA video game series has correctly predicted the World Cup winner for the fourth time in a row, marking over a decade of correct predictions
Electronic Arts’ FIFA series, one of the longest-running soccer video game series, has once again correctly predicted the winner of the FIFA World Cup, marking 16 years of correct predictions for the video game.
EA’s FIFA simulation correctly predicted Spain’s victory at the World Cup in 2010, then Germany’s in 2014, followed by France’s in 2018. Now, it’s correctly picked Argentina for the 2022 World Cup.
The FIFA team ran 64 different simulation matches using its in-game teams to predict the result, and not only did it get the winner correct, it also made a number of incredible predictions that turned out to be true.
It correctly predicted that Lionel Messi would dominate the tournament, and that the player would win the Golden Ball. It also predicted he would win the Golden Boot, which he very almost did, coming in a close second to Kylian Mbappé, who only managed to swipe the Golden Boot from Messi with a stunning hat trick in the World Cup final.
FIFA also predicted that Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez would pick up the Golden Glove which, of course, he did. Not all of its predictions were spot on, however, as the game’s simulations thought that runner-up would come in third.
Perhaps the biggest bad prediction was that Brazil would come in place, a far cry from the truth, given the five-time World Cup winners only made it to the quarterfinals in Qatar this year.
So how does it do it? Well, FIFA 23, the latest game in the ongoing series from EA, has scanned in the likenesses of dozens of famous footballers from around the world to come up with the most accurate model possible. The movements of the athletes are recorded and analysed closely by experts, who make sure that their in-game models perform as close to possible as the real thing within the game.
From there, the team runs simulations using the in-game teams, running a near-identical tournament format to the real thing. It’s not perfect, as seen by the few mistakes here and there, but it’s certainly a lot closer to the end result than pure guesswork.
One streamer probably could have used such an accurate prediction, after Twitch streamer xQc lost $735,000 on World Cup final bets. xQc was so sure that France would win the finals that he placed a $500,000 USD bet on the team, equivalent to almost $750,000 in Australian dollars, but after Argentina’s strong performance in the first half he cashed out, losing almost all of it.
Another Twitch streamer fared a lot better, winning over $2.3 million on World Cup betting. Trainwreckstv, one of the highest-earning streamers on the platform, correctly predicted four wins in a row during the tournament, earning him millions.
Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.
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