Early Season (Ratings Reload, Ultimate Scream)
fallingSaturday, 03 October 2026 to Thursday, 22 October 2026
The market settles at its level. The weekly promo rhythm kicks in: Thursday dip, promo at 6pm UK on Friday, supply high over the weekend, recovery on Monday and Tuesday.
What to do
Trade the week: buy meta cards Thursday evening or Friday, sell Monday or Tuesday. Sell promo cards the moment you pack them — don't hold them.
What actually worked in this phase
From the FC 26 season, every card from 5,000 coins up, bought and sold again after 7 days, after the 5 % EA tax. Buying at random in this phase returned -12 % on average. The percentages below were tested on cards that were not used to find the patterns.
- ▲meta gold cards that lost a little the week before: +1.1 %
- ▲meta gold cards that moved sideways: 0 %
- ▼Better left alone, plain gold cards well below their high: -38 %
- ▼Better left alone, plain gold cards that lost more than 15 % the week before: -35.4 %
Key dates
- Fri 9 Oct Ratings Reload (FC 26: 10 Oct)
- Fri 23 Oct Ultimate Scream (FC 26: 24 Oct)
Market events in this phase
- Fri 09/10 Ratings ReloadThe first big promo after launch (FC 26: 10 Oct); meta cards dip as it drops.
Expected daily move by card type
Baseline for an 85–87 rated card with normal hype, before day-of-week patterns and events.
| Gold (standard) | -0.8 % / day |
| Gold meta (in demand) | -0.5 % / day |
| Team of the Week / inform | -0.6 % / day |
| Promo card | -1.5 % / day |
| Icon | -1.4 % / day |
| Hero | -0.5 % / day |