Konami’s free-to-play eFootball is already the worst-rated Steam game in history

Konami’s free-to-play successor to Pro Evolution Soccer, eFootball, was released today and is already the worst-rated game in the history of Steam.

According to Steam 250, which assigns Steam games a score determined by whether players give them a positive or negative review, combined with how many players reviewed them, eFootball currently has a score of 8%.

That makes it lower than the previous worst-rated game, 2011’s racing title Flatout 3, which has a score of 15%.

eFootball has been getting unceremoniously slaughtered by Pro Evolution Soccer fans on social media, with many making fun of the game’s likenesses and animations.

The most popular image being shared among players shows Lionel Messi, the game’s cover star, looking significantly less realistic than his FIFA 22 counterpart.

One Twitter user pointed out that EA‘s character model for the Paris St Germain star is far more lifelike, even though Konami scanned Messi’s face and body as part of its partnership with Barcelona, for whom Messi used to play.

At the time of writing, the game has nearly 4000 reviews on Steam, of which only 350 are positive (though some of these are joke reviews, including one user saying they like it because they like PS2-era games).

“This is a joke,” one reviewer writes. “The worst football game I ever played. It simply is a mobile game. The ball weighs 100kg, the contacts between players are chaotic, nothing feels right. It’s a shame.”

“Watch in vain as four men stand around watching a ball because the computer has decided they are not due to receive it,” another review says.

“Battle against the referees who will allow your forwards to be dragged back, knocked over and brought down while clear on goal but will book your players for a millimetre of gentle connection with the opposition while winning the ball.”

A number of other PC players have been reporting that the game only allows them to play with a maximum resolution of 720p.

“Steam should update its policy so that we can refund free-to-play games,” one reviewer joked.

Konami had already confirmed via the game’s official Twitter account that eFootball would be “basically a demo” at launch.

Although it was stated to only include nine teams on its release day, Konami has announced a new Worldwide Clubs event that lasts until November 8, during which players can choose from a wider range of teams to try and earn GP, one of the game’s currencies.

This can then be spent after the game’s first main update in mid-November, which will include a number of new modes, including Creative Teams, in which players build their own squad similar to FIFA’s Ultimate Team (or the myClub feature in previous PES games).

Although the game is free-to-play, players can also buy an “eFootball 2022 Premium Player Pack”, priced at $39.99 / £32.98. This includes a range of microtransaction content that can’t be used until the mid-November update arrives, two months after its release.