It appears that Electronic Arts might be doing some late spring cleaning. Following news of server shutdowns for Anthem in early 2026, EA reports the plan to sunset Need for Speed Rivals servers.
EA cited that the servers for Need for Speed Rivals will officially shutdown on October 7 2025. A visit to the Xbox Game Store page confirms the pending sunset of the game’s servers. This will also effectively discontinue two of the Xbox achievements (and PlayStation / Steam equivalent trophies) for the game. Specifically:
- Friendly Race – Winning a race against someone on your Friends List).
- Buddy Bust (busting a player from your Friends List).
The closure will affect all versions of the game including PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
That being said, offline gameplay will still be functional for now. So you’ll still be able to get your racing fix. You’ll just (sadly) be doing so without the company of friends.
Additional EA Server Closures
As noted earlier, this comes as the third server closure announcement coming from Electronic Arts. Sadly, NHL 21 servers will be the other party on the chopping block. Within an EA Forum, it was cited that NHL 21 servers would sunset on October 6 2025. The Community Manager cited “low daily active player base” as one of the key factors behind this decision.
Need for Speed Rivals, which debuted in 2013, was another entry in the Ghost Games/Criterion Games Need for Speed franchise. While the game saw somewhat average scores across various gaming websites, it was nominated for “Racing Game of the Year” during the 2014 Annual DICE Awards.
Be sure to check out additional coverage around the tumultuous landscape of gaming this summer with Gamer Social Club. For more about the pending closures of EA’s Anthem servers, be sure to check out last week’s dive into this news here.
