Rematch, the 5v5 online football game from Sifu studio Sloclap, turned one year old on June 19 2026. It launched on the same date in 2025 and reached five million players inside its first month, which made it one of the breakout releases of that year. The studio that built the kung fu games Absolver and Sifu pivoted to competitive football, and the gamble paid off fast, even though Sloclap now describes the first year as anything but simple.
How big did Rematch get in its first year?
Five million players in the opening month set the tone. Rematch drops each player into control of a single footballer on a small pitch, viewed from a third person camera, in fast matches that run about six minutes plus extra time. There are no fouls, no offside, no VAR, and no fixed positions, which strips football down to movement, passing, and shooting. Reviewers landed it in generally favorable territory, with a Metacritic score around 75, and the comparison most people reached for was Rocket League without the cars.
Sloclap published the game with Kepler Interactive and built it on Unreal Engine 5, releasing on PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series consoles. To add star appeal without licensing whole leagues, the studio brought in stylized versions of real footballers including Marc Andre ter Stegen, Kobbie Mainoo, and Ronaldinho, who appear as playable characters that do not change how the game plays.
What did Sloclap get wrong at launch?
The biggest miss was crossplay. Multi platform matchmaking was always on the roadmap, but Sloclap shipped without it, underestimating how much players treat crossplay as a baseline expectation rather than a bonus. The feature took more than two months to arrive, and CEO Pierre Tarno admitted the delay felt like an eternity for gamers and drew sharp criticism.
Tarno also described the year as a very strong learning curve, since Rematch was the studio's first attempt at running a live service, team based multiplayer game. Nothing in Sloclap's back catalog of single player and small scale brawlers prepared the team for the constant balancing and support that a competitive online sport demands.
Where does Rematch go from here?
Sloclap never planned Rematch as a forever game, and that shapes its future. The original post launch roadmap covered roughly 12 to 18 months, and the studio has already reshuffled it as the meta evolved and player skill rose. Season 2 arrived on December 17 2025, and a mode for solo players backed by AI teammates is planned for Season 3 in 2026, which would finally let people enjoy the game without assembling a squad. For a studio known for offline experiences, keeping a live football game healthy for a full year is a real milestone. If you want to step onto the pitch, the game is on console and PC.