With more game, FIFA showpiece shatters attendance and TV records
PARIS: Driven by an enlarged 48-team format, the 2026 World Cup created a stadium attendance high while FIFA boss Gianni Infantino said that TV viewership broke the previous record “many, many times over”. Speaking Friday, the president of world football’s...
PARIS: The 2026 FIFA World Cup has broken attendance and television records, with the enlarged 48-team tournament drawing crowds at a level never seen before in the competition’s history, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.
Speaking on Friday, Infantino said the global audience had surpassed the previous high “many, many times over,” while acknowledging that the scale of the event had helped push the numbers higher. He said the tournament was “the largest World Cup in history by far” and said it had “exceeded all expectations.”
The expanded format added 16 more teams to the finals, making this edition the biggest World Cup ever staged. FIFA had projected before the tournament that income for 2026 would exceed seven billion euros, or about $8 billion, marking a 56% rise from the 2022 edition in Qatar.
By the time the third-place playoff was due on Saturday and the final on Sunday, FIFA had already reported more than 6.6 million spectators inside stadiums across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the three host nations. Media calculations later put the total at 6.81 million across the 104 matches, although FIFA had not yet released an official final tally.
The tournament crossed the 5-million attendance mark during the round-of-32 match between France and Sweden. Ticket sales also broke the previous World Cup record of 3,587,538 set in the United States in 1994.
Stadiums were filled to 99.7% of capacity on average, despite criticism over high ticket prices. Average attendance reached 65,351 per match, according to the figures cited.
FIFA also said television audiences had set new highs around the world. The governing body did not provide detailed viewing figures, but said in a statement on Saturday that “TV viewership records were shattered, both in the host countries and across the globe.” During a press conference on Friday, US President Donald Trump mentioned a figure of “nearly six billion viewers,” though no official breakdown accompanied that number.
The 2022 final in Qatar, where Argentina beat France, had previously been the most watched match in World Cup history with 1.5 billion viewers. That followed the 2018 final, which drew 1.12 billion viewers.
FIFA has also pointed to strong online engagement, saying that by the end of the round of 16, 5.2 billion people — nearly two-thirds of the global population — had engaged with the competition at least once.
The organization said it planned to spend $3.7 billion on the tournament, with one-quarter of that set aside for national teams and clubs releasing players. The prize pool was increased in April to $871 million, up from $440 million in Qatar. The winning team was due to receive $50 million, while each participating side was guaranteed at least $12.5 million.
Infantino also said during the tournament that discussions had begun about expanding the 2030 centenary World Cup to 64 teams. He said the proposal had been submitted to the FIFA Council.
This report is based on a monitored public feed. Source attribution: Dawn Sport.
Source: Dawn Sport - https://www.dawn.com/news/2017102/with-more-game-fifa-showpiece-shatters-attendance-and-tv-records
