Key Takeaways
- PEGI has officially begun reclassifying existing digital games featuring loot boxes from lower age ratings up to a minimum of PEGI 16.
- The rollout is happening throughout October 2026, following the introduction of new criteria for newly submitted games since June 2026.
- EA Sports FC — previously rated PEGI 3 — is among the games impacted, along with gacha title Zenless Zone Zero, which moved from PEGI 12 to PEGI 16.
- The term “paid random items” covers loot boxes, card packs, gacha pulls, prize wheels, and similar mechanics — any mechanic where you pay and get a random result.
- Games with NFTs or blockchain mechanics will be rated PEGI 18, while unrestricted online chat with no moderation tools also earns an automatic PEGI 18.
- The change applies to digital-only games — physical retail copies are not directly impacted in the same way.
This has been coming for a long time. After years of debate about whether loot boxes belong in the same conversation as gambling, one of the world’s most widely recognised game rating systems has finally made a decisive move. PEGI — the Pan-European Game Information ratings board — has started upgrading existing digital games that feature paid random items to a minimum age rating of PEGI 16. The rollout began this week and is expected to continue throughout October 2026.
This isn’t a surprise if you’ve been following the story. PEGI announced the framework change back in March 2026, started applying it to newly submitted games from June, and is now working through the back catalog of existing digital titles that need to be reclassified. Connor Hinde of the UK’s Games Rating Authority confirmed the rollout is live via a LinkedIn post, noting that any digital game currently rated PEGI 3, 7, or 12 that contains paid random items — loot boxes, gacha, card packs, whatever the mechanic is called — is getting bumped to PEGI 16.
What “Paid Random Items” Actually Means
PEGI is using the umbrella term “paid random items” deliberately, because the gaming industry has historically been creative about naming these mechanics to make them sound less like what they are. Loot boxes, card packs, character pulls, gacha systems, prize wheels, summoning banners — if you are spending real money or premium currency for a random outcome, it falls under this definition. The descriptor used is irrelevant. If you pay and the result is random, it is now a PEGI 16 mechanic by default.
This matters because a major argument the industry leaned on for years was that loot boxes were legally distinct from gambling because you always receive something, even if it isn’t what you wanted. PEGI isn’t ruling on whether they constitute legal gambling — they’re simply saying the mechanic itself is not appropriate to market to children under 16, full stop. The research supporting this position is substantial: studies have consistently found that young people who engage with loot box spending are at elevated risk for gambling-related issues later in life.
EA Sports FC and the PEGI 3 to PEGI 16 Jump
The example that makes the scale of this change most obvious is EA Sports FC. The football franchise has historically sat at PEGI 3 — the lowest possible age rating, indicating the game is appropriate for all ages. That’s a rating that goes on packaging, that parents see on the shelf, and that most people would reasonably interpret as meaning the game is child-safe. It is now getting upgraded to PEGI 16.
The reason is Ultimate Team — specifically the card pack mechanic at its core. You spend real money (or earn virtual currency that can be bought with real money) for a random selection of player cards. The players you get are determined by chance. That’s the definition of a paid random item, and under PEGI’s new framework, it means PEGI 16. Unless EA fundamentally restructures how Ultimate Team monetisation works — which isn’t happening, given that it generates hundreds of millions in revenue every year — EA Sports FC is a PEGI 16 game going forward.
This is a massive reputational shift. A game that was marketed as family-friendly for over a decade is now in the same age bracket as games containing moderate violence. It doesn’t change the actual content of the game itself, but the signal it sends to parents — that this game’s monetisation mechanics are not considered child-appropriate — is significant.
Gacha Games Are Also in the Crosshairs
EA Sports FC isn’t alone. Zenless Zone Zero, the action game from HoYoverse, has already had its rating bumped from PEGI 12 to PEGI 16 as part of this rollout. Gacha games — which are built entirely around the paid random item model of pulling for characters using premium currency — are precisely the category this rule was designed to address. The gacha model is especially prominent in mobile gaming and is almost universally targeted at younger audiences.
HoYoverse’s entire catalog operates on this model, as do most major mobile games with any kind of collectible mechanic. Many of them have been rated well below PEGI 16 because their content — in terms of violence or mature themes — didn’t warrant a higher rating. Under the new framework, the monetisation mechanic itself now drives the rating, regardless of what the rest of the game looks like.
The Full Picture of PEGI’s New Framework
Paid random items and loot boxes are the headline change, but PEGI’s overhaul goes further. Here’s the complete breakdown of what the new criteria look like:
- PEGI 7 — Games with daily login rewards or play-by-appointment mechanics (logging in for daily quests, streak bonuses, etc.)
- PEGI 12 — Games with time-limited or quantity-limited in-game purchase offers; also PEGI 12 if daily login mechanics punish players for not returning (losing content or progress)
- PEGI 16 — Any game featuring paid random items: loot boxes, gacha, card packs, prize wheels, summoning banners — anything where payment results in a randomised outcome
- PEGI 18 — Games integrating NFTs or blockchain-based mechanics; also PEGI 18 for games with entirely unrestricted online communication (no blocking or reporting tools)
The NFT and blockchain ruling is particularly interesting. Games that have incorporated those mechanics — which includes a fair number of titles that launched during the crypto gaming boom — are now automatically hitting the highest rating possible short of an outright ban.
Why This Matters Even Without a Legal Ban
It’s worth being clear about what this change does and doesn’t do. PEGI ratings are not a legal ban on selling games to under-16s in most countries — they’re age recommendations. In the UK, PEGI ratings are legally enforced, meaning retailers cannot sell a PEGI 16 game to someone under 16. But in much of Europe, they’re guidance rather than hard law, and digital storefronts have historically been inconsistent about enforcing them.
What the ratings change does do is change the visible signal. Parents who see PEGI 16 on an app store listing for a game that looks like a kid’s game — a cartoon football game, a colourful anime action title — now have a clear indicator that the monetisation inside may not be appropriate for their child. That label carries weight even when enforcement isn’t ironclad.
The change also applies specifically to digital games, which is where the actual loot box spending happens. Physical retail copies of games are handled differently, but the digital storefronts — Steam, the App Store, Google Play, the PlayStation Store — are where these mechanics are actually accessed and where the reclassification will show up.
A Decade in the Making
Debates over loot boxes and gambling mechanics in games have been running since roughly 2017, when Star Wars Battlefront II’s aggressive monetisation triggered a global backlash and prompted legislative inquiries in multiple countries. Belgium and the Netherlands moved to restrict or ban loot box purchases outright. Australia introduced an M15+ classification for games with paid loot boxes in 2024. Germany’s USK updated its own framework in 2023 after new youth protection legislation was passed. PEGI has been one of the last major rating bodies to formally incorporate these mechanics into its core classification criteria — but now it has, and the rollout is happening.
The broader conversation about how game publishers monetise their existing player bases has been getting louder throughout 2026, and this PEGI change adds a new regulatory dimension to it. Publishers whose titles are suddenly reclassified will face pressure to either accept the new ratings — with all the commercial implications for marketing to family audiences — or restructure their monetisation to avoid them. Given how embedded card packs and gacha pulls are in the revenue models of the biggest titles, most will likely just accept the rating. Whether the EU’s upcoming Digital Fairness Act takes things further — potentially moving from ratings to actual restrictions on selling these mechanics to minors — remains to be seen, but the direction of travel is clear.
For now, if you have younger gamers at home who play any title with card packs, character pulls, or loot boxes, keep an eye on the PEGI ratings as they update throughout October — the number on the label is about to look very different on a lot of familiar games.
