This guide now goes into its second year. 
FM22 Guide: How to increase realism in Football Manager 2022
Please do not ask me in the comments what setup I recommend for System X or Y. Sometimes I answer them via PM, if the message is friendly and I have some free resources, which is very rare.
Every setup can be customized by yourself how it suits you the most.
PLEASE NOTE:
- The downloadable setups might be larger compared to how you played the game before. I know that this can be frustrating as the game can be very slow that way. Playing Football Manager the more “realistic” way will make your CPU burn, always ;)
- The setups and the guide are designed for the vanilla game. An extended version which covers over 200 Nations from all Continents is available on my Patreon.
What is the difference between unloaded leagues, view-only, playable and playable with full details
Unloaded league
• No schedule, games are fully simulated in the background
• No visible league table
• No full squads (only if you load them via the advanced DB)
• No staff (After the first sacking of the real manager, there will be in most cases no new head coach and other staff members)
• Low transfer-activity
• “fictional” finances (no existing balance, only a „fictional“ calculated one)
• Games will be simulated with the quick Match-Engine
League „view only“
• League-schedule
• League table
• No full squads (only if you load them via the advanced DB)
• No staff (After the first sacking of the real manager, there will be in most cases no new head coach and other staff members)
• Low to medium transfer-activity
• “fictional” finances” (no existing bank balance, only a “fictional” calculated one)
• Games will be simulated with the quick Match-Engine
League playable
• League-schedule
• League table
• Full Squads
• Existing Staff
• Realistic transfer-activity
• Accurate simulation of the financial system
• Some games will be simulated with the Full Match Engine.
League playable + full details
• League-schedule
• League table
• Full Squads
• Existing Staff
• Realistic transfer-activity
• Accurate simulation of the financial system
• Games will be fully simulated
What is the benefit of simulating Leagues in full detail?
You will get more realistic stats and results.
The player development takes more calculations into account (development per average is similar but more diverse).
If you simulate other leagues in Nations where you’re not currently managing with full detail, you will get a stronger AI, especially when you play against them.
What slows the game processing speed down the most?
• Setting leagues to simulate in full detail uses multicore pretty heavy.
• A lot of leagues are playable
• custom data in general slows down performance. There are big differences in what kind of custom data is used. As an orientation, you can go by file size. Larger files need more processing time. (not always, but especially lower-league-files do have quite a big impact.)
• An incredible amount of players loaded also affects performance. Down to my experience, if you don't load 200k+ players, this effect is not that big compared to the others mentioned above
• All custom graphics loaded do not have any influence on the game speed at all. As far as I know, it has some influence in terms of RAM usage
Extra Tips:
1. As a human manager you have some advantages over the AI. You can be much better at transfers because you don't "feel" pressure or concerns about which teams have IRL. I think that's a reason why the AI is not that aggressive vs a human player fighting against a specific talent. It looks like a weak programmed AI, for me it is just insane programming skills by SI devs. With that in mind, you might not just buy a wonderkid for 20 million while managing a team that would never do that IRL, even if it would be possible. This gave me a much more immersive game experience.
2. Disable the first transfer window. The game starts (in most cases) in summer 21. In real-life, transfers already happened, so if you enable that transfer window you’ll get much less accurate transfers, especially in the first year.
3. If you are struggling to choose the right setup for your Laptop/PC and it’s only about 2 or 3 more leagues, then even add 5 
4. Stick to the setup you’ve chosen at the start during your save game. I wouldn’t add additional leagues or remove some. If your game becomes too slow I would first set some fully simulated competitions to default. This has a much bigger impact on the „day to day“-performance.
5. Ignore the performance stars when you choose a setup. They are only a rough orientation and can be misleading. Especially with the advanced database setup and custom detail levels.
6. As a general rule: In every Club, where you see existing players (not the greyed out ones), there will be newgens generated. If the whole Club has no existing players in 2021, there won’t be any in 2031.
Detail level
I recommend setting all national teams simulated in full detail as well as the continental club competitions.
If this slows down your game already too much, you can change this to only the Continent you are currently managing.
Check out how I set up the detail level for each setup (small, medium, large) on my YouTube video above.
Available setups for the default game:
Every setup contains all players from existing leagues within the game. So even the small setup has over 200k players.
As I mentioned already, my setups are quite demanding but especially the „small“ one might be faster than you think.
Small: 40 playable leagues in 35 Nations with 204k players
This setup adds the top division in 35/53 Nations as well as the 2nd division in England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. All the other leagues are all „view“ only with players added via the advanced database.
This setup already guarantees you a well-balanced transfer market, and strong competitors (see the benefit of the playable league over „view only“). This database is already very demanding.
For those for who this is already way above their limit, I recommend setting the detail level completely to default. If it’s still too slow, see „additional setups“.
Medium: 64 playable leagues in 41 Nations with 212k players
This setup mainly goes down the league pyramid and adds 2nd and 3rd divisions of the bigger Nations but also some top divisions of smaller Nations.
If you can’t choose between this or the small one, take the „medium“ setup
Large: 97 playable leagues in 53 Nations with 220k players
The smell of a burning CPU can be quite romantic, right? Almost the same as being at a campfire with your partner
Jokes aside, this setup adds at least the top division of every Nation and a lot of 2nd and 3rd divisions as well. Just be aware: Once you had 1 long-term-save game with such a setup, there will be no way back anymore ^^.
Additional setups:
In my guide for FM21, I wrote about much smaller setups but only 1 setup to download (recommended setup). This year I wanted to make a change.
In this pack, there are 2 smaller setups included. Those setups are meant to be for those who: 1. have a weak laptop/PC or 2. prefer playing FM as quick as possible but with a tiny bit of realism too.
Database setup:
This file is needed for every league setup. It adds players from all over the world for at least the top division. It’s also designed to add players for all „view-only“ leagues.
So if you might have wondered why some leagues aren’t loaded as „view-only“, it’s because there aren’t enough players available in the database, so I don’t see a need to have them added, as they do not produce any players in the future.
Useful Links
FM22 Performance Benchmarking - If you don't know if your PC/Laptop is low/mid/high-end you can check here.
I have created a megapack to increase the realism of Football Manager 2022, I recommend using it of course
There is a great leagues megapack by DaveTheEditor which makes a lot of additional Nations playable in the game. I worked closely together with him and tested his files, so I know about the high quality-standard he provides.
I also recommend the data updates from TheNotoriousPr0.
There are a lot of other files I recommend using to increase the realism in Football Manager 2022. A personal list of files I use is available on my Patreon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Yo Dave, what setup should I choose? I have a PC, thanks
A: Yooo, someone forgot to read the first few sentences;): Please do not ask me in the comments what setup I recommend for system X or Y. Sometimes (almost never) I answer them via PM, if the message is friendly and I have some free resources.
Q: Where do I need to place those files?
A: „The setups need to be placed here: C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\game_setup“.
The database setup (all players from default leagues) needs to be placed here: C:\Users\yourname\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\db setups
Q: It still doesn’t work….
A: Watch my YouTube video, it’s shown there
Q: I’m on a Mac…
A: Worth considering switching to PC then;) I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t help you with that I’m sorry!
Q: Where do I need to set the detail level
A: Watch my youtube-video, it’s shown there
Q: Why does this guide not include any custom leagues?
A: Because the guide should work for everyone. There might be custom ones available somewhere 
Q: Where can I find it?
A: Check out Patreon Level 2: Guide How to increase realism in FM22 – extended version
Q: I might found a mistake in one of the setups
A: Send me a PM
Q: Does it work for FM16, FM17, FM18, FM19, FM20, FM21?
A: No
Q: So it works for FM15? What about FM-Mobile?
A: No, No, No, No, No, No
I hope I was able to help you with one of the toughest decisions BEFORE you start your save-game
In case I missed something or you think I’ve made a mistake, PM’s are open
Cheers
Daveincid
