EA Sports FC 26: the FC 27 ratings database is open and the pre-order bonus closes on 31 August — but two EA pages give different release dates

EA published an announcement on the EA SPORTS FC 26 Steam feed on Friday 21 August 2026 at 17:10 UTC. It runs to two sentences, but it carries the only dated deadline FC 26 players have to deal with this week: the Ultimate Plus Edition pre-order bonus closes on 31 August.

In the same move, EA opened the EA SPORTS FC 27 ratings database to the public. Here is exactly what the announcement says, what it does not say, and the date inconsistency worth knowing about before you reach for your card.

The ratings database is live, with PlayStyles

The official text, in full:

"Earned through every performance. Discover the EA SPORTS FC™ 27 Ratings database now and stay tuned for the full PlayStyles reveal."

The address is ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/ratings, and note the wording: the full PlayStyles reveal is still to come, so what is online today is the ratings themselves. This is not a standalone item either: it follows two earlier posts on the same feed, "EA SPORTS FC™ 27 | Ratings" on 14 August, then "The 27 top-rated men's and women's players in FC 27" on 17 August. Three posts in a week on the same subject is a deliberate ramp-up towards launch.

The useful part for an FC 26 player is not the top twenty-seven ranking. It is the mention of PlayStyles, and above all the tense: "stay tuned for the full PlayStyles reveal" means that reveal has not landed yet. What is online today is the ratings. We noted on 21 August that FC 26 FUTTIES player items ship without a PlayStyle and that you have to go through the PlayStyle Lab to fit one: comparing an FC 26 profile with its FC 27 equivalent will therefore have to wait for that second publication.

31 August: what the Ultimate Plus pre-order actually gives you

The second sentence of the announcement is the one with a deadline. It is dense, so it is worth breaking down line by line:

The five Hall of FUT names, as EA lists them: Adebayo Akinfenwa, Giovani dos Santos, Loïc Remy, Marouane Fellaini and Eljero Elia. Only one is selectable.

A release date that does not line up across sources

This is the point to check before pre-ordering, and it comes down to a one-day difference between two official pages.

• EA advertises "7 days early access from 18 September". Seven days from the 18th lands on 25 September, the date we used in our 19 August article.
• The Steam store page for EA SPORTS FC 27 shows "Sep 24, 2026" as the release date.

From the 18th to the 24th is six full days, not seven. We will not settle this on EA's behalf: both pages are official, they do not say the same thing, and the gap is one day. The reliable marker, the one that does not move from source to source, remains 18 September for the start of early access — and above all 31 August for the bonus closing.

For the record, the Steam page credits development to EA Canada and EA Romania, published by Electronic Arts.

What it changes for your FC 26 season

The question is not trivial, because FC 26's endgame is already largely written. Three items, all covered in our earlier guides, converge here:

1. FC 26's Season 10 rewards cannot be claimed in FC 26: they arrive in FC 27 and expire within a month. If you pre-order, you collect them in a game you can reach from 18 September. If you do not, your claim window starts at the standard release.
2. The "Glorious Destiny" vote, which picks FC 27's first FUT team, closes on 10 September at 17:00. It depends on no pre-order at all.
3. FUTTIES and FC 26's 3,000-token cap remain the only source of progression until then.

In other words, 31 August does not shape your FC 26 season: it shapes how you land in FC 27, and how long you get to claim what FC 26 owes you.

What to do, in order

1. Check the ratings database at ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/ratings before deciding: it gives FC 27's ratings, but not yet the full PlayStyles reveal.
2. Read EA's disclaimers page before pre-ordering: the asterisk on "and more" points there explicitly.
3. Decide before 31 August whether Ultimate Plus is worth the price to you — after that date, the listed bonuses are no longer tied to the pre-order.
4. Vote in "Glorious Destiny" by 10 September: it is free, and unrelated to any pre-order.

One final reminder, valid for every EA pre-purchase offer: the FC Points advertised as "up to 10,000 FC Points over 5 months" are not currency available on day one. The Steam announcement details neither the schedule nor the payout conditions, it caps the figure with an "up to", and the pointer to the disclaimers page is there for exactly that reason. Read it before deciding, not after.