After years of wildly incorrect predictions, Madden 24 has snapped its Super Bowl losing streak. This year’s official simulation of Super Bowl LVIII was nearly right on the money, correctly predicting a narrow win for the Kansas City Chiefs.
As has become tradition, EA simulated this year’s Super Bowl matchup in its flagship football series days before the big game. Last week, it used Madden 24 to pit the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers head to head. The final result? A Chiefs win with a 30 to 28 score.
As it turns out, that was nearly right on the money. The real Super Bowl LVIII ended with a similarly close game, with the Chiefs barely eking out a 25-22 win. While Madden 24 was a few points off, it was still very much in the same range and point differential. That’s enough to make it the series’ most accurate prediction in years.
What’s much more impressive is how much the simulation nailed some stats. The game predicted that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes would land 29 completions for 323 yards. Mahomes landed a few more targets with 34 successful passes, but the yardage was right on the money. He had 333 passing yards in the real game. Similarly, the simulation was almost exactly right about tight end Travis Kelce. It had him catching seven balls for 91 yards. The real performance? Nine catches for 93 yards.
The @tkelce #MaddenSBsim results…
✅ 91 Yards
✅ 1 TD
✅ Super Bowl Victory #Madden24 | #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/gQb5zgWSII— Madden NFL 24 (@EAMaddenNFL) February 10, 2024
The San Francisco 49ers saw some eerily accurate stats, too. The sim had running back Christian McCaffrey rushing for 81 yards. In real life, he ended the game with 80.
It’s a win Madden desperately needed. The last few years have been disasters for the digital prognosticator. Last year, it predicted that the Philadelphia Eagles would easily beat the Chiefs 31-17. In reality, the Chiefs would win 28-25 with a last-second field goal. Before that, it predicted a win for the Cincinnati Bengals in its Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams. While the final score was almost perfect, Madden got it backward. The Rams won that game.
This year’s correct prediction was crucial, keeping the simulator’s accuracy rate close to the 50% mark. Let’s just hope that the Madden Curse doesn’t match that accuracy next season.
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