Two weeks ago, 24-year-old entrepreneur Deniz Sancar launched an innovative football game created entirely using artificial intelligence in less than 24 hours. Starting at 9 p.m., Sancar employed Claude, an AI-driven coding assistant, to develop the game. By 4:30 a.m., he had completed 38-0-0, a simple yet engaging football simulation that challenges users to assemble an all-time Premier League XI and determine if their team could accomplish a perfect season—winning all 38 league matches without a single draw or loss.
The game’s premise centers on drafting players by spinning a wheel that randomly selects Premier League clubs and seasons. Players pick one athlete from each selected team to fill the 11 positions. Each drafted player’s rating is based on their performance during their specified season. This creates intriguing scenarios—for example, users might draw members of Manchester City’s dominant 2017-18 squad before being forced to select a player from a relegation-threatened team like West Brom in the same year. An algorithm then calculates the likelihood that the customized lineup could sustain an unbeaten, flawless campaign.
Sancar said he went to bed shortly after completing the game only to wake up to thousands of users engaging with it, noting that his Instagram notifications surged. Encouraged by the immediate response, he developed an app version, which surpassed 100,000 downloads within its first 48 hours. By the end of its first week, over 2 million people worldwide had played 38-0-0. Two weeks after its creation, the app continues to attract hundreds of thousands of daily users and ranks at the top of trivia app charts.
The game has drawn fans in part due to its nostalgic appeal. Users often find themselves researching past Premier League seasons and players, revisiting moments and figures that might have faded from collective memory. “A few spins in, you’re hooked,” a user commented, highlighting how the game encourages deep engagement with football history and statistics.
While most player ratings are calculated algorithmically based on season-specific performance data, Sancar admitted to making a subtle manual adjustment to reflect his own support for Arsenal. Notably, he increased Patrick Vieira’s rating slightly above Roy Keane’s to honor the rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United. He also included an Easter egg allowing players to attempt the inverse challenge: assembling a team destined to go 0-0-38 by selecting the worst possible players.
No team has ever achieved a 38-0-0 Premier League season in reality; even Arsenal’s undefeated “Invincibles” and Manchester City’s record-breaking squad fell short. However, several players have reportedly reached a perfect 38-0-0 record within the game’s simulation. The app’s success appears to lie in its blend of straightforward gameplay and rich football lore, appealing to both casual fans and devoted followers exploring the Premier League’s storied history.