Backyard Soccer (series)

Backyard Soccer is a series of children's association football video games developed by Humongous Entertainment and published by Infogrames. It is the second of five sub-series in the Backyard Sports franchise. Three main titles were released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS: Backyard Soccer (1998), Backyard Soccer MLS Edition (2000), and Backyard Soccer 2004 (2003). A port for the PlayStation was also released, and a remaster of the first game was later produced.

The series began when Humongous Entertainment announced Backyard Soccer in September 1997, a month before Backyard Baseball launched, with a planned 1998 release. The game was initially set for a September release on Windows and Macintosh but was delayed to October 13. At E3 in 1999, the company announced licensing deals with several professional sports leagues, including Major League Soccer, which allowed future Backyard Sports titles to include younger versions of professional players. A sequel for the Game Boy Color was announced in May 2000 for an early 2001 release, but it was canceled along with planned Game Boy Color versions of Backyard Baseball 2001 and Backyard Football 2001. The sequel was still released for Windows and Macintosh on October 3, 2000, as Backyard Soccer MLS Edition. It featured 12 MLS players representing all 12 league teams at the time, as well as USWNT players Brandi Chastain, Briana Scurry, and Tiffeny Milbrett. In 2001, the original Backyard Soccer was ported to the PlayStation. The third title, Backyard Soccer 2004, was released on March 11, 2003, bringing back all three USWNT players and four MLS players from the previous edition, along with new MLS players such as Bobby Convey, Chris Armas, Clint Mathis, Jay Heaps, Landon Donovan, and Tony Meola. In 2024, after the remastered Backyard Baseball appeared on Steam, more remasters of classic Backyard Sports games were announced, including the original Backyard Soccer. That remaster, titled Backyard Soccer '98, launched on Steam on November 27, 2024, and was later ported to mobile devices on November 13, 2025.