This might come as a surprise, but Landon Donovan admits he didn’t know anything about the world of soccer growing up.

Even though he played the sport and dreamed of playing at the highest level, Donovan didn’t watch matches on TV—soccer certainly wasn’t as accessible to American audiences in the early-to-mid ’90s as it is today, nor did domestic leagues like the MLS or NWSL exist.

The only club he knew anything about at that age was AC Milan because he’d receive videotapes of matches, goals and highlights for Christmas, causing him to fall in love with the creative and charismatic Italian talisman Roberto Baggio.

Video games, particularly EA Sports’ FIFA series, became a conduit for the young Donovan, who would end his professional career as the most celebrated male player in U.S. soccer history, to learn about the beautiful game.

“There’s a little bit of a stigma around video games sometimes, but I actually learned a lot about soccer by playing the game,” Donovan said. “I learned about other players, national teams and club teams, and there was a hand-eye component to playing, not to mention just learning about soccer because I didn’t have it on TV.

“In a weird way, it did teach me a lot about soccer.”

Donovan’s learnings and love affair with soccer through video games is not uncommon.

EA Sports, the publisher behind the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world according to Guinness World Records, has sold more than 355 million units of its 38 soccer games released over 30 years all around the world. Last year, 16 billion matches were played in FIFA 23, which was also the last in the franchise to include a partnership with soccer’s governing body.

Despite the separation, EA Sports and its storied soccer series continues to carry on, rebranded as EA Sports FC with its first installment, EA Sports FC 24, available worldwide starting September 29.

“One of the things we know we have to our advantage is EA Sports,” EA Sports FC global brand vice-president David Jackson said. “That has not changed. What you get in an EA Sports game is three things: authenticity, innovation and purpose. We want to make sure we’re really intentional as an organization in how we establish this new platform, how we go out on our own and how we build the FC brand from the ground up with football as our focus.

“We feel really good about it. We know it won’t be a one-and-done. What we will know very, very quickly is whether we’ve convinced people that the game they know and love for such a long time is now represented by this new brand, and we already feel like we’ve done a good job with that.”

While EA Sports FC 24 is the latest iteration of the popular video game series from the makers of football, basketball, hockey, F1 and MMA games including Madden, the soccer franchise hasn’t only evolved its brand, but also its purpose.

Not only is FC a video game, but it’s expanded into a platform to grow the love of soccer worldwide through impact that goes beyond interactivity.

EA Sports is working with multiple partners including UEFA, Conmebol and the Premier League on its FC Futures platform. Announced in April, the three-year plan will invest $10 million globally to grow the game through the development of fields and safe places to play, investments in equipment as well as building a library of training practices produced in five languages for young players and coaches to view and utilize for training purposes.

“We want to make sure that the real world of football is also going to benefit from the interactive one,” Jackson said. “We think we can do a huge amount of good, certainly in North America, through this franchise.”

To help further the growth of global soccer, EA Sports has expanded its licenses with more than 350 governing bodies, leagues and teams to offer more than 19,000 athletes across 700 teams and 30 leagues in FC 24.

Advancing equality and the inclusion of women’s players and clubs has been a priority as well. The franchise introduced 12 women’s national teams in FIFA 16 and included women’s clubs from the NWSL, WSL, Division I Féminine and UEFA Women’s Champions League in last year’s edition. FC 24 is taking it one step further by including clubs from Liga F in Spain and the Frauen-Bundesliga in Germany, while adding women’s players to its popular Ultimate Team game mode for the first time.

“It is important not only including the national teams, but club teams,” said USWNT and Gotham FC forward Lynn Williams. “Obviously with the national team it’s such an honor and privilege but there are so many other people playing soccer that don’t necessarily get those opportunities, so to have someone interact with your character in the game, it’s another added opportunity to fall in love with that player.”

EA Sports’ franchise hasn’t only reinforced football fandom for fanatics, but continues to introduce new and casual fans to some of the greatest current and former players, clubs and leagues around the world.

According to Jackson, EA Sports worked with marketing agency Two Circles to conduct a study on the franchise’s reach, which resulted in establishing that 62 million soccer fans around the world were only fans because of the video game.

That relationship is no more evident than in the United States where soccer continues to grow in the shadow of the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL driven by a tech-savvy, young, diverse demographic.

Soccer is the No. 1 sport in participation and No. 2 in fandom for Generation Alpha (born after 2013), according to a Morning Consult survey, while it’s the third-most-popular sport for Gen Z behind football and basketball, according to a Two Circles study.

With the 2024 Copa América, 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2028 Olympics and potentially the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup coming to U.S. soil, the future of football is certainly bright with the EA Sports franchise playing no small part in its expansion, not only in the United States, but around the world.

“It’s a big reward,” said former Chelsea forward Didier Drogba. “When you think about the last World Cup that happened here in 1994, you see the difference and the evolution of the game. When MLS games were playing, the stadiums weren’t always packed. When I played here (for the Phoenix Rising in 2017-18), there were more and more people in the stadiums.

“It’s perfect timing to have all these big events here. You can’t beat that. I’m really happy about that. It’s very exciting.”