The UEFA Euro 2024 kicks off soon, why just watch it when you can play it?

No matter how you call it, soccer or football is one of the most popular sports across countries and continents – especially when it comes to exciting, storied championships such as the UEFA Euro, where some of the best national teams in the world compete every four years. This is the second-most watched tournament of its kind after the FIFA World Cup and the first match of the UEFA Euro 2024 kicks off in less than a month from now in Germany, where all 51 matches will be hosted. Hundreds of millions of people will be watching those matches, so millions of gamers would probably enjoy replicating those or other such matches with friends and family on their favorite console or PC.

But how does one go about it?

The UEFA Euro 2024 does not have its own official video game per se, but it does have the next best thing: a video game endorsed by UEFA – for consumers as well as for eSports professionals – which is none other than EA Sports FC24. The latest entry of this long-running series might not be called “FIFA” anymore, but it’s the same title developed by the same team and the version released as EA Sports FC24 last September is one of the best in recent memory. Electronic Arts had already announced back in November that it will be entering a partnership with UEFA for the upcoming Euro 2024 and it was some time ago that we found out exactly what that means.

For professional e-sports players it’s the chance to share a $100.000 prize pot by participating in the eEURO 2024 tournament which is already under way. For consumers, it means that EA Sports FC24 will be getting a sizeable free update soon which will be adding everything needed for the title to support and promote the Euro 2024. This includes all 24 official national team rosters and kits, nine out of the ten German stadiums participating, a whole new, standalone game mode developed for the Euro 2024 championship and exclusive relevant content (i.e. special cards) for the popular Ultimate Team game mode.

While it’s not yet officially confirmed exactly when this Euro 2024-focused content update for every version of EA Sports FC24 will drop, there was a vague “Spring 2024” window mentioned by Electronic Arts in the past – so, given the fact that the first match of the tournament kicks off on June 14th, chances are that the update will be made available by the end of May. That’s more than enough time for people who do not already own EA Sports FC24 to score – huh – a copy of the game so they can get the free update added as soon as it drops and be ready way before the beginning of the actual Euro 2024 tournament.

It just so happens – just kidding, this was obviously planned months ago – that consumers can take advantage of some serious discounts offered on EA Sports FC24 these last few days. Xbox Series S/X owners can get the Standard Edition of the game for $13.99 (down from $69.99) or the Ultimate Edition for $39.99 (down from $99.99) until May 27th. PC gamers can do the same, for the same pricing, for both versions of the game until June 13th as part of the Mega Sale happening at the Epic Games Store since last Thursday. Whether Nintendo plans on joining the Euro 2024 fun is not yet known but, as of right now, EA Sports FC24 for the Switch costs $59.99 as it always did.

PlayStation owners seem to be the luckiest of the bunch in this particular instance: all three tiers of Sony’s PS Plus subscription service – Essential, Extra and Premium – got the Standard Edition of EA Sports FC24 without paying a dime as part of May’s free games for the PS4 and the PS5. Subscribers who have not yet added this title to their library can do so until June 17 (Sony even threw in an Ultimate Team Starter Pack to help players hit the ground running with EA’s ultra-popular titular game mode).

So there you have it: get EA Sports FC24 for cheap – or even for free – over the next few days, turn it onto EA Sports UEFA Euro 2024 when Electronic Arts releases that content update at no extra cost and… that’s it. Just make sure there are enough spare game controllers to go around when inviting friends or family to play and you’re good to go. Not bad for a few dozen hours of fun before or after watching the tournament matches. Not bad at all!