The 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets have shattered every record in football history, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirming that every single match across the United States, Mexico, and Canada will be played in front of a sold-out crowd.
In an interview on CNBC in the Mar-a-Lago, Florida the Infantino showed the terrifying figures of the demand – and they are unprecedented in world football.
Huge Demand of 2026 World Cup Tickets.
FIFA was able to receive an unprecedented ticket requests of 508 million tickets within four weeks to almost seven million available tickets. Such requests were made by fans in over 200 countries and that is almost all the countries in the world.
“The demand is there. All the matches are sold out, Infantino said. We never had anything of that sort, amazing.
In context of that, the 2026 World Cup will have 104 games, the highest in its history, after increasing the number of participants to 48. Infantino described the event scale as being one of the largest of American sport.
“It feels like it is the 104th time the Super Bowl is happening in a month,” he said.
The Biggest World Cup of All Time.
The 2026 world cup is history before the first ball is kicked. It will be the first world cup to incorporate 48 countries as compared to the 32 team set up that has been there since 1998.
This was also the largest footballing event to be held in the past as the expansion also implies that the 104 games will be held in venues throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The figures outside the stadiums are also very spectacular. Organisers of FIFA and tournament project:
- 20-30 million more tourists to the host countries.
- About 185000 jobs generated by the tournament.
- Great economic influence in each of the three host countries.
Fan criticism of Ticket Prices.
All that surrounds the sales process has not been universally received well. The associations of fans have been quite vocal in condemning the prices of the tickets which they have described as being exorbitant.
The secondhand prices of the sellable fixtures have been at an all-time low in the resale market – an aspect Infantino admitted to but justified.
Since resale is legal in the United States, FIFA has already indicated that the open market will automatically push the prices up when demand exceeds supply that much.
The economics are quite hard to dispute with 508 million requests in pursuit of only seven million tickets, even though the question of affordability may be a real issue on the side of followers.
Final Ticket Sales Phase Commences in April.
There is one more chance of those fans who were deprived of previous sales windows. Infantino affirmed that a last-minute sales phase of ticket sales will start in April 2026 and will go on until the final of the tournament on July 19, 2026.
The latest chance before this last chance was the second round of ticket sales which also closed last month. FIFA had reserved a part of the tickets to this final round giving the fans an opportunity to get their tickets once more to be on the inside of one of the 16 host stadiums.
The Implications of this to World Football.
The magnitude of the interest in the 2026 FIFA world cup is an indication of a larger expansion of the tournament in the global scope. The need by more than 200 nations indicates that the popularity of football has never been as broad and since the United States is hosting the first time since 1994, there is tremendous commercial and cultural impetus to this edition.
In the case of FIFA, the figures justify financing the move to make the tournament bigger. To fans the message is obvious, if you would like to be in a stadium next summer, the last sales window in April can be the last opportunity you can be realistic.
