2026 World Cup Breaks Ticket Demand Records, Leaving Millions Without Seats

FIFA has reported an unprecedented demand for tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. During the third and final sales phase, the governing body received more than 500 million ticket requests, the highest figure ever recorded in the tournament’s history.

Requests were spread across the 104 matches set to be played in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The new 48-team format dramatically increased global interest, but it also made securing tickets far more difficult. FIFA released only 1.754 million tickets in this final phase, creating an extreme imbalance between supply and demand and leaving millions of fans without a chance to buy seats.

Based on these numbers, the mathematical probability of being selected in the lottery was just 0.35 percent, one of the lowest success rates ever seen for a sporting event of this scale.

The 2026 World Cup is expected to offer a total stadium capacity of approximately 7.1 million seats across 16 host cities and 104 matches. Even so, FIFA plans to make only about 4 million tickets available to the general public.

Roughly 2 million tickets had already been sold in earlier phases, including the Visa presale and the general sales window held before the World Cup Draw on December 5.

The third phase followed a random lottery system, with fans from 212 countries registering to request tickets. Each user was allowed to apply for up to 40 tickets, with a maximum of four per match.

The registration period opened on December 11 and closed on January 13 at 10:00 a.m. (Mexico City time). After the deadline, FIFA began the selection process to determine which fans earned the right to purchase tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.