Before the 2026 World Cup started, there were doubts about how an expanded tournament would unfold across North America, at venues largely unaccustomed to international football, and in a country (the US) with stringent visa restrictions for many participating nations.
Most of the doubts have been addressed swiftly with this year’s finals witnessing some of the most incredible crowds.
What was feared by some to be a possible drawback – massive NFL stadiums in the US turned into football grounds – has turned into arguably the biggest strength of the World Cup as record crowds have turned up at the opening week of the finals, with almost all matches played in front of capacity crowds.
According to Fifa, this year’s tournament is well on its way to becoming the most well-attended World Cup in history.
According to tournament data, the first six days alone drew a crowd of 1.3 million (average attendance of 65,483), putting the tournament on track to break the 1994 cumulative attendance record of 3.5m around the group stage itself.
This week, four World Cup matches witnessed a combined attendance of 281,223 fans, breaking the 32-year-old single-day tournament record.
The previous mark of 277,070 across four matches was also set in the US in 1994.
The record was broken on Tuesday when France played Senegal (80,545 fans in New York), Argentina faced Algeria (69,045 in Kansas City), Austria played Jordan (68,527 in California) and Iraq faced Norway (63,106 in Massachusetts).
However, there were some doubts about the overall numbers. Viewers saw many empty stands in a few of the venues, especially at Guadalajara in Mexico, where the match between South Korea and Czech Republic was played in front of stands that were sparsely populated.
However, Fifa explained that they count tickets scanned at the gates and that some fans chose to watch the match from the concourse and not their seats.
"Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match," the BBC quoted Fifa as saying.
"Please note that during the match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match."
Hydration breaks a windfall for Fifa
In this tournament of firsts, one aspect has received criticism. Fifa's mandatory three-minute breaks, one in each half, to help players deal with the heat and humidity of North America, have proved controversial with some fans even booing.
Critics argue the enforced breaks disrupt the flow of play and in many instances, players are seen loitering around waiting for play to resume.
However, the breaks could turn into a potential jackpot for Fifa, to go with the ticket sales from a record number of fans attending the matches. Reports suggest advertisement slots during the drinks breaks are bringing in massive amounts of additional revenue.
According to the BBC and The Wall Street Journal, additional advertisement breaks are expected to bring in around $250 million in the US market alone. The worldwide figures could be substantially more, making this one of the most financially lucrative World Cups in recent times.
