EA Sports FC 26 New Update 1.000.013 Kicks Off v1.4.0 as the First Patch of the Year

by Alex Co January 6, 2026 5:14 am in Title Updates and Patches
ea sports fc 26 update 1.000.013

EA Sports FC 26 has received its v1.4.0 patch this January 6, and this brings a host of gameplay improvements. Console gamers will see this download appear as EA Sports FC 26 update 1.000.013, and this is live across all platforms.

There are major changes applied to AI Defending, Ultimate Team, and more.

For the official patch notes, read on for the complete info.

EA Sports FC 26 Update on January 6 Now Live as Patch 1.000.013

AI Defending

We are making a change that will reduce the reaction times of AI defenders when marking the ball carrier, increasing the chance of them leaving more open space while transitioning between actions. This change can help your attacks feel more free-flowing. We will continue to monitor your feedback on AI Defending and look to make more adjustments if needed.

Gameplay

We are making changes to improve responsiveness and address frustration across several areas of play.

  • CPU AI behavior in Squad Battles has been adjusted. We heard your feedback that the recent tuning made the sequences feel overly passive  and there were long periods of low-pressure possession from the CPU AI. The CPU will now take a more proactive and attacking approach to create a smoother Squad Battles experience. The CPU AI will not focus on maintaining possession as much as before.
  • Updated Acceleration Types height values. This change refines the minimum and maximum height thresholds used to determine run types for players. You can expect more players to have the Lengthy run type with this change. As part of this, the minimum Lengthy height requirement for men’s players will be 185 cm, and 165 for women’s players. Other Lengthy requirements will not be changing and will remain at:
    • Strength minimum 65
    • (Strength – Agility) >= 4
    • Acceleration minimum 40
  • Defenders positioned on the goal line can now make automatic clearances in appropriate situations to improve defensive reliability. This is only for last-ditch situations where a defender is already in position to block a certain goal, at a speed that the user might not be able to react to.
  • Shoulder challenges between players with a large Strength Attribute difference will more often result in the player with the lower Strength Attribute stumbling. Also, players with higher Strength and Aggression Attributes can generally be better at shielding the ball.
  • We have further reduced the accuracy of Acrobatic shots, such as bicycle kicks, taken right after a flick.

You can also check out additional gameplay updates in the full Patch Notes.

Football Ultimate Team

We’ve addressed several issues as well as made improvements to the navigation within Ultimate Team.

  • We are adding a New Release hub, a new destination in Ultimate Team which will act as your go-to place to learn about the latest campaigns. You can access this via a new menu tab or through the News tile to see highlighted content and navigate to the latest SBCs, Objectives and more. This menu tab is intended to go live in a server release a few weeks after Title Update 1.4.0.

  • Addressed the following issues:
    • Sometimes a trophy would be displayed in the corner of a pitch.
    • Sometimes after previewing an Evolution consumable item in an Item Pick and returning to the selection screen, the highlighted item would default to the last item previously selected.
    • Addressed cases of a specific UI flow that resulted in the radial menu appearing unintentionally.

Career Mode

We’ve made changes to Career Mode including the following:

  • Expanded Player Status Information by providing separate Contract and General fields, containing info on a player’s willingness to negotiate and their potential.
  • Certain Archetype options are now ineligible based on the selected Origin Story in Player Career.
  • Replaced Starting Skill Level with Starting AP in Player Career, displaying the amount of AP the player is eligible for based on their chosen Origin Story.
  • Adjusted Manager Career Job Security logic for situations when managers reach an Insecure job security status.
  • Contract durations have been extended up to 3 years for ICONs and Heroes.

You can check out the full Career Mode changes and all the issues addressed in the full Patch Notes.

Clubs

We’ve addressed the following issues in Clubs:

  • Addressed cases where incorrect Acceleration Types could have been set by the user.
  • In some cases, the Team Management screen did not display correct Acceleration Types, this was a visual issue only.

PC

We’ve addressed the following issues on the PC version of FC 26:

  • Refresh rate could’ve unintentionally changed to 60Hz at times.
  • Addressed some specific cases of framerate issues occurring in the second half of matches.

Once another patch is out, expect it here on MP1st.

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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.