Super Bowl 2026 Madden NFL 26 simulation: Who wins Big Game?

Here's how Super Bowl LX unfolds, according to our Madden NFL 26 simulation

By Tyler Sullivan

Feb 4, 2026 at 8:02 am ET • 4 min read

Madden NFL 26 (EA Sports)

We are knocking on the door of Super Bowl LX, and the anticipation is palpable. When it comes to the lead-up to a given Super Bowl, the two-week hiatus between games can oftentimes be excruciating for fans who cannot wait for this game to unfold and a champion to be crowned. This year, it'll either be the Seattle Seahawks in the winner's circle and Sam Darnold completing his career resurrection, or it'll be Drake Maye kicking off a new era for the New England Patriots and claiming a championship in just his second season.

While we sit around and wait for this game to arrive, how about we let the video game gods give us a little preview of what may be to come? As we've done for the past few years, we've loaded up the latest edition of Madden NFL, set the difficulty to All-Madden, clocked it to 10-minute quarters, and put the two Super Bowl contenders against one another.

If you've followed these in years past, you know not to take this simulation lightly, even if it is a video game. Coming into Super Bowl LX, this simulation has picked the correct winner in four of the past five Super Bowls, including the Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago.

For the Seahawks, they'll hope that streak continues as they were able to pull off a thrilling 23-20 victory over the Patriots to claim the Super Bowl LX title in this simulation.

At the start, it looked like Sam Darnold was regressing to his ghost-seeing days with the New York Jets as he was sacked five times throughout the first half. That included three in the first quarter that limited the Seattle offense to a mere field goal. Fortunately for Darnold, the Seattle defense was able to keep New England in check as they simply traded field goals over the opening period.

Things did start to open up in the second quarter, with the Patriots taking a 10-3 lead thanks to Kayshon Boutte reeling in a diving 12-yard touchdown reception from Maye.

Seattle then took possession and, aided by a defensive pass interference call on New England corner Marcus Jones, found itself in position to even the game at 10 apiece with the ball inside the red zone. Despite the penalty putting their backs against the wall, the Patriots unit held firm, giving Mike Macdonald a decision on fourth down. The Seahawks head coach elected to be aggressive and keep his offense on the field on fourth-and-3, but he was not rewarded. Darnold was sacked for the fifth time on the half, and this takedown also turned the ball over on downs and eliminated a scoring opportunity.

That momentarily took the wind out of Seattle's sails, but they'd bounce back. After New England punted on its next possession, Darnold led a touchdown drive right before the half, firing an 11-yard pass over the middle to Cooper Kupp to knot the game at 10 at the break.

The tie was quickly broken within the opening minute of the third quarter as Maye connected with tight end Hunter Henry over the middle of the field for a thunderous 64-yard touchdown reception.

That touchdown by Henry felt like it was going to be the defining moment of Super Bowl LX, particularly after the New England defense held Seattle to a field goal on its next possession and kicker Andy Borregales netted a field goal of his own to push the Patriots back up by a touchdown, 20-13, entering the fourth quarter.

However, the final frame proved to be where the Seahawks made a championship comeback. At the 5:55 mark of the fourth quarter, Darnold and Kupp connected for their second and most impressive touchdown of the night, as the quarterback lofted the ball to the front corner of the end zone on third-and-2 to tie the game at 20.

From there, it was Seattle's defense that started to turn up the volume against the Patriots' offense. New England's best chance to get back out in front came at the 3:21 mark of the fourth quarter. They were able to get the ball to the Seattle 41-yard line, but could not move the chains. Seahawks corner Tariq Woolen broke up a sideline pass from Maye to Boutte that would've resulted in a first down. Instead, the Patriots punted the ball away.

Darnold then took possession and began a clock-bleeding drive that took the offense to the Patriots 3-yard line. There, Macdonald sent out Jason Myers, who nailed the go-ahead chip-shot field goal with less than 25 seconds left to playin regulation.

Maye and the Patriots offense would get the ball back at their own 24-yard line, just 20 seconds left on the clock, and no timeouts. After moving the ball momentarily, defensive tackle Leonard Williams shut the game down with a sack on Maye to end the game.