FIFA has confirmed that total attendance at the 2026 World Cup has already reached 6,527,410, more than the 2018 and 2022 editions combined, with the semi-finals and final still to come.
The expanded 48 team format, played across 16 stadiums in the United States, Canada and Mexico, has driven the surge.
The current all-time top five for total World Cup attendance are USA 1994 (3,587,538), Brazil 2014 (3,429,873), Qatar 2022 (approximately 3.4 million), Germany 2006 (3,367,000) and South Africa 2010 (3,178,856).
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Incredible support inside stadiums at @FIFAWorldCup 2026 🤩
More fans have attended this year’s tournament than the previous two editions combined! 👏 pic.twitter.com/QTstYKS9JL
— FIFA (@FIFAcom) July 12, 2026
This year’s tournament has already blown past every one of those individually, and looks set to become the most attended sporting event of its kind in history.
For context, the scale of that number stands up well against other major sporting institutions. The NFL, playing 272 regular season games at an average of over 67,000 fans per match, draws roughly 18 million fans across a full season. The NBA, across an 82 game regular season for 30 teams, has recently topped 22 million fans in its most attended campaigns.
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Even the Super Bowl, the single biggest annual sporting occasion in the United States, drew an attendance of just 70,823 fans this year, a figure this World Cup has already exceeded many times over across its run.
With the final still to be played at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the 2026 World Cup looks certain to stand alone as the most watched, in person, football tournament in history.
Photo: Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images
