This update fixes more issues reported by users in FM26 Beta, and in particular changes to pre-generated player and staff images. These changes will be reflected in existing save files.
It's the fourth hotfix update this week, even though the developers had initially planned to roll out 3 this week.
Date Released: October 31st, 2025
File size: 1.6 GB
More info on the pre-generated images situation:
Due to an in-game toggle not functioning as intended in previous builds, they had to revise the approach as detailed in the changelist below. These changes should give you greater control over how these images are displayed in FM26, especially important on lower-end devices which was the intention.
This lead to confusion, with some believing that all Newgen faces in the game are pre-determined. However, this is not the case – but through these adjustments you now have the ability to choose between pre-generated and dynamically generated player and staff images, granting you full control over these settings.
As usual the update is save game compatible, so you don't have to start a new save game.
To update you will need to close down Football Manager 2026 and re-launch for it to update. If this does not work for you or you feel it has not updated you will need to restart Steam or Epic.
If that doesn't do the trick, then verify the game cache will.26.0.3.2228945 List of Changes
Amongst the changes in today’s hotfix you can find:- Fixed an issue affecting the preference to show pictures of players and staff generated by the game.
- Added a preference to switch between pre-generated or dynamically-generated player and staff images, improving performance options for lower-end hardware
- Further fixes to matches freezing
- Various stability fixes
- Updated translations
There's been a large volume of issues posted on the official FM26 Bug Tracker, with many of them being duplicates. Before you post, please use the search function to check if someone has already raised something similar. If they have, you can give the post a "+1" by clicking the relevant button to say you've experienced the same. This will allow the developers to see clearly which issues are affecting the largest numbers of users.
If you encounter any issues post update, please use the official FM26 Bugs Tracker. You can also contact [email protected] for further support.
Discussion: Football Manager 2026 Patch 26.0.3 - Hotfix Update for Beta
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