Backyard Football is back. Playground Productions, the studio behind other recent Backyard Sports relaunches, will make Backyard Football ‘99 available beginning Sept. 9 on mobile devices and Steam. The title restores the original game, down to the pixel, including the return of seven of the eight NFL legends that appeared in the first game.
Backyard Football ‘99 was the first in the series to include pro athletes as playable characters. NFL star Jerry Rice participated in a series of TV spots promoting the game ahead of the 2000 Super Bowl, the first primetime commercials for a kids video game.
“Baseball is obviously a classic, but we think football is right up there,” Playground Productions chief product officer Chris Waters said in an interview.
The game created a generation of diehard fans, including the Kelce brothers, who spoke in 2024 about their efforts to reboot the franchise. “That was the best game ever,” Kelce said on the New Heights podcast last year. “Can you imagine playing Backyard Football right now on your phone?”
They are not involved in the current project, though Playground Productions CEO Lindsay Barnett hopes the two play the game, after other creators have helped bring gamers’ attention to Backyard Baseball and Backyard Soccer. In May, YouTubers Dude Perfect garnered nearly 600,000 views on a session of Backyard Baseball ‘97.
“We now have a lot of Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers who never grew up with these games … these games are older than most of them,” Barnett said. “A lot of the kids are finding this, because they’re watching Millennial streamers or Millennial athletes talk about their love of this franchise.” Backyard Baseball ’97 became the top paid sports game in Apple’s App Store upon its debut in October.
Rice is back, along with Barry Sanders, Dan Marino, Drew Bledsoe, John Elway, Randall Cunningham and Steve Young. The only missing competitor from the original set is Brett Favre. “John Elway has 10 grandchildren now, and he’s like, ‘They’re going to get to see me as a star,’” Barnett said. “Randall Cunningham said he gets stopped all the time about this game from 1999.”
The typical Backyard roster—headlined by Pablo Sanchez—returns as well. Barnett said the release was timed to the start of football season. The computer version of the game will cost $10 on Steam, while iOS and Android players can pick up the mobile version for $5.
In addition to upcoming basketball and hockey relaunches, Playground Productions is also working on a wholly new entry in the series, folding in lessons they’ve gathered from re-releases to date. Modern features like online play and co-op mode are coming, but the team is focused on maintaining the classic franchise’s DNA evident in its football hit.
“The game holds up,” Waters said.