It was released in the United States on 4 October 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo DS.

Ronaldinho and Wayne Rooney were featured on the cover of the game in the European, Australian, and Brazilian markets.

Freddy Adu and Omar Bravo joined Ronaldinho on the North American cover, while Lukas Podolski was partnered with Ronaldinho on the German release of the game and Park Chu-Young was on the South Korea cover.

In addition to a renovation of the game engine which discards the "ball" system, developers boast a significantly more involved career mode and the introduction of "chemistry" which will determine how good teams play together.

Statistics for the current season are available including leading goalscorers, card recipients, team stats, league standings, and cup competition fixtures.

The European Super Cup is of the same name in UEFA competition, which pits the winners of the ECC and EFA in a match right before the following season.

League standings are featured as well as the ability to save the session so players can play at a later date.

Inside it features an unlockable classic biographies section, a memorable moments video compilation which features ten of the most memorable moments as judged by the FIFA 06 developers, and a video compilation with a retrospective view at all the games in FIFA series with "Cobrastyle" by Teddybears featuring Mad Cobra playing as the background music.

FIFA 06 has introduced challenges for the player to achieve in order to win points and unlock prizes.

Such unlockables in the game include classic player biographies, new camera angles, alternate club kits, stadiums, and videos.

The game also features a Classic XI team, assembled by EA Sports, consisting of great football legends, and a World XI team, consisting of current superstars, chosen by FIFPro.

This installment broke a short tradition of commentating from John Motson and Ally McCoist, replaced by ITV's Clive Tyldesley and Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray for the game's English-language version.

[citation needed] The PlayStation 2 version of FIFA 06 received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[50] indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

[51] Across all platforms, it sold more than 1 million copies in the United Kingdom,[52] making it the UK's best-selling game of 2005, above rival Pro Evolution Soccer 5 in second place.