Axis Football 2026 is a massive step forward for the series

Ah, my second favorite kind of battlefield: The football field; The gridiron. Or, if you’re way up North (in Green Bay), the “Frozen Tundra”. I absolutely love American Football games, and think I have all of them… except Madden. (I’m not going to spend a bunch of time thrashing the money-pit of Madden games). Unlike the great Axis Football 2026, a lot of them are text-based, requiring you to use your imagination to ‘see’ the plays in your head. They’re good, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer watching the on-field action.

As a starting note, I have played every version of Axis Football since it hit the PC/Steam market. If I remember correctly, the first one was Axis Football 2015. I mention them going to PC because in every iteration, there’s a splash screen telling you Axis Football started as a browser game. Not being a browser-gamer, I didn’t know it existed until 2015.

Axis Football 2026 is incredibly flexible. In Franchise mode, not only can you play an American-type of setup (32 teams), but also a European-tier type (36 teams). You can play Exhibition and/or Franchise games: “Play” = regular, with all the bells and whistles; “Coach” mode — just call the plays and hope your players carry out their assignments; “Spectate” is you pick two teams and just watch how everything unfolds; for ya’ll that have friends and want to play online, there’s a “2P Match” and a “2P Coach”; and finally a “Resume ________” — whatever kind of game you were playing when you quit. That obviously means Axis Football saves wherever you were at the time of quitting.

As expected, every time a game has sequels, you expect them to get better each time. Axis Football 2026 has definitely accomplished this. This time, though, I’d bet they added more to the game than any other year.

They added a complete play editor. Make or adjust a play or two… or make yourself an entire playbook! Hundreds of new routes, dozens of formations, and thousands of plays. Also, new block-and-release routes. Expanded depth chart positions.

New franchise settings menu to give even more customization to franchise mode. Franchise salary cap options are very cool. (Fair) trade offers from other teams in franchise mode! Overhauled draft pick trading system for complete control over your picks, plus draft and free agency player pool strength controls.

There are a ton of other things too, too numerous to name them all. A lot of it has to do with improved audio and visual effects. Even the crowd and announcers have been upgraded. Additionally, Instant Replay is great for analyzing all aspects of the previous play!

It should be obvious about how I feel about Axis Football 2026. With an overhauled AI and even player movements, this is, by far, the best game they’ve ever produced. I had 175 hours in the last edition — I can easily foresee at least double that with this version.

Axis Football 2026 is available now for PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, Mobile  and PC.