The Football Manager franchise began in 2005 when the team of developers from the popular Championship Manager franchise split from their publishers at Eidos Interactive. What followed this creation is one of the longest-running and most successful sports management simulators of all time, with the latest entry in the series, Football Manager 2024,having a record player count of over 14 million players. The series' yearly entries have gradually improved the match engine over time, initially beginning with just match commentary before upgrading to 2D visuals, eventually adding a 3D match engine in Football Manager 2009.