Older players in FM26 have a hidden advantage. They gain Consistency every year, and it improves their performance.
Consistency, one of FM26's hidden attributes, sits still until 23, then climbs about 1 point a year and never drops. Each point adds about 0.02 to a player's average rating at the same ability and club. In a long save, that gives a 30-something about +0.1 over a 23-year-old with the same CA.
What happens to Consistency during a save
- From 16 to 21, it doesn't move.
- From 23, it grows about 1 point a year (closer to 1.1 in the early 30s).
- It never goes down. I tracked 98,202 players through a season of a new game, and 0 of them lost any Consistency.
- Low Consistency grows faster. Each year a player closes about 1/8 of the gap to 20, so a player at 8 gains about 1.5 a year, a 12 gains about 1, a 16 gains about 0.3, and a 20 stays at 20.
- Nothing else I measured changed the rate. Minutes played, CA, Professionalism, Determination, club reputation, and birth month made no real difference. Only age and the starting value mattered.
Does it matter on the pitch?
Yes, for ratings. At the same CA, age, position, and club, each point of Consistency adds about 0.02 to a player's league average rating. A 20 averages about 0.3 higher than a 5.
That held in all 7 save snapshots I tested (+0.019 to +0.021 per point in each). It also held for 17-21-year-olds, whose Consistency hasn't started growing yet, so it isn't just older players rating differently.
For comparison, Important Matches and Pressure were worth 0 to 0.003 per point in the same model. Of the hidden attributes I tested, Consistency is the only one that shows up in ratings.
What this means for your save
- A 22-year-old your scouts flag as inconsistent will improve without any help from 23 on.
- Veterans carry an edge you can't see on the attribute screen. In my 2040 save, the average 30-year-old sits at 15.5 Consistency.
- Newgens arrive with an average Consistency of about 9, while real players aged 16-22 start a new game at 9-12. Long saves end up with inconsistent kids and consistent veterans.
Versatility does the same thing
It's flat until 22, about +1 a year from 23, and it never drops. Most other hidden attributes barely move in a season.
| Hidden attribute (1 season, all ages) | Went up | Went down |
|:--|--:|--:|
| Consistency | 38% | 0% |
| Versatility | 38% | 0% |
| Professionalism | 9% | 0% |
| Determination | 9% | 0.5% |
| Natural Fitness | 5% | 4.5% |
| Ambition | 2.6% | 0.1% |
| Important Matches | 1.5% | 0% |
| Injury Proneness | 0.1% | 2% |
| Pressure | 0% | 0% |
| Dirtiness | 0% | 0% |
(The 38% includes everyone under 23, who don't grow. Among 23+, 73-84% went up.)
How I got the data
I read every player in 13 FM26 save files with fmsave, my open source Python library for FM26 saves. That covers a new game simulated for a season, my own long careers, and a few saves other players sent me. Players were matched across snapshots by database ID and birth date. The rating comparison uses outfield players with 15+ rated league games and 1,000+ minutes, compared with teammates who have the same CA, age, and position.
fmsave is free, read-only, and runs on your own machine (pip install fmsave). The code is at rhiever/fmsave and the docs are at rhiever.github.io
335 points · 63 comments
Dribbling was the exception to the small technical declines in my FM26 saves
I've been using save exports to learn FM26's mechanics better. This time, I compared the same players at the start and end of 1 season to see how aging showed up in both their hidden Current Ability (CA) and their visible attributes.
The part that caught my eye was buried in the technical average. Most of the decline was physical, while the average technical drop was relatively small. Dribbling followed a much steeper curve, reaching an average loss of about 1.8 points on the usual 1-20 scale among players starting at 36.
Across the groups starting at 33-36, physical attributes were still falling, but the average loss over 1 season was similar. Dribbling losses kept growing across those ages.
This covers 14,242 outfield players across 2 overlapping saves, excluding human-managed clubs. The curves compare starting-age groups, not players followed through their 30s, so they're a look at what happened in these saves rather than a controlled test of the ageing rules.
The exports came from fmsave, the free Python library I'm building to read FM saves locally without modifying them.
pip install fmsave
Documentation
60 points · 29 comments
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@ArtificialAnlys Transparency = truthful, admits uncertainty, flags assumptions, doesn't flatter you. Informativeness = dense, evidence-based, actionable answers. Chart made with evident-charts: rhiever/evident-charts
Data: data.stackexchange.com Chart made with evident-charts, my open source chart skill for coding agents: rhiever/evident-charts
Super cool to see these exciting projects building on top of the fmsave library! rhiever/fmsave
Older players in FM26 have a hidden advantage. They gain Consistency every year, and it improves their performance. Consistency, one of FM26's hidden attributes, sits still until 23, then climbs about 1 point a year and never drops. Each point adds about 0.02 to a player's average rating at the same ability and club. In a long save, that gives a 30-something about +0.1 over a 23-year-old with the same CA. What happens to Consistency during a save - From 16 to 21, it doesn't move. - From 23, it grows about 1 point a year (closer to 1.1 in the early 30s). - It never goes down. I tracked 98,202 players through a season of a new game, and 0 of them lost any Consistency. - Low Consistency grows faster. Each year a player closes about 1/8 of the gap to 20, so a player at 8 gains about 1.5 a year, a 12 gains about 1, a 16 gains about 0.3, and a 20 stays at 20. - Nothing else I measured changed the rate. Minutes played, CA, Professionalism, Determination, club reputation, and birth month made no real difference. Only age and the starting value mattered. Does it matter on the pitch? Yes, for ratings. At the same CA, age, position, and club, each point of Consistency adds about 0.02 to a player's league average rating. A 20 averages about 0.3 higher than a 5. That held in all 7 save snapshots I tested (+0.019 to +0.021 per point in each). It also held for 17-21-year-olds, whose Consistency hasn't started growing yet, so it isn't just older players rating differently. For comparison, Important Matches and Pressure were worth 0 to 0.003 per point in the same model. Of the hidden attributes I tested, Consistency is the only one that shows up in ratings. What this means for your save - A 22-year-old your scouts flag as inconsistent will improve without any help from 23 on. - Veterans carry an edge you can't see on the attribute screen. In my 2040 save, the average 30-year-old sits at 15.5 Consistency. - Newgens arrive with an average Consistency of about 9, while real players aged 16-22 start a new game at 9-12. Long saves end up with inconsistent kids and consistent veterans. Versatility does the same thing It's flat until 22, about +1 a year from 23, and it never drops. Most other hidden attributes barely move in a season. | Hidden attribute (1 season, all ages) | Went up | Went down | |:--|--:|--:| | Consistency | 38% | 0% | | Versatility | 38% | 0% | | Professionalism | 9% | 0% | | Determination | 9% | 0.5% | | Natural Fitness | 5% | 4.5% | | Ambition | 2.6% | 0.1% | | Important Matches | 1.5% | 0% | | Injury Proneness | 0.1% | 2% | | Pressure | 0% | 0% | | Dirtiness | 0% | 0% | (The 38% includes everyone under 23, who don't grow. Among 23+, 73-84% went up.) How I got the data I read every player in 13 FM26 save files with fmsave, my open source Python library for FM26 saves. That covers a new game simulated for a season, my own long careers, and a few saves other players sent me. Players were matched across snapshots by database ID and birth date. The rating comparison uses outfield players with 15+ rated league games and 1,000+ minutes, compared with teammates who have the same CA, age, and position. fmsave is free, read-only, and runs on your own machine (pip install fmsave). The code is at rhiever/fmsave and the docs are at rhiever.github.io
Data: artificialanalysis.ai Get the evident-charts skill: rhiever/evident-charts October 6 snapshot. Costs are per benchmark task; similar aggregate scores don't guarantee equal performance on your tasks.
Dribbling was the exception to the small technical declines in my FM26 saves I've been using save exports to learn FM26's mechanics better. This time, I compared the same players at the start and end of 1 season to see how aging showed up in both their hidden Current Ability (CA) and their visible attributes. The part that caught my eye was buried in the technical average. Most of the decline was physical, while the average technical drop was relatively small. Dribbling followed a much steeper curve, reaching an average loss of about 1.8 points on the usual 1-20 scale among players starting at 36. Across the groups starting at 33-36, physical attributes were still falling, but the average loss over 1 season was similar. Dribbling losses kept growing across those ages. This covers 14,242 outfield players across 2 overlapping saves, excluding human-managed clubs. The curves compare starting-age groups, not players followed through their 30s, so they're a look at what happened in these saves rather than a controlled test of the ageing rules. The exports came from fmsave, the free Python library I'm building to read FM saves locally without modifying them. pip install fmsave Documentation