According to FIFA's press service, approximately 500 million ticket applications were submitted during the second sales phase. This phase took place from December 11 to January 13 and lasted 33 days, during which the majority of tickets were sold.
Applications were accepted only through FIFA's central system, and fans from all 211 countries and territories within the federation showed interest in the tournament.
FIFA characterized this interest as "a new record demand in the history of world sports," but did not specify which particular indicator was exceeded. For comparison, during the second sales phase for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, around 23.5 million applications were registered for 2 million available tickets.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first tournament after the format change, which increased the number of participants from 32 to 48 teams. Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, stated that the total number of tickets for this World Cup will be between 6 to 7 million.
The highest interest in tickets came from fans in the host countries of the tournament, as well as from Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Colombia. The largest number of applications was submitted for the group stage match between Colombia and Portugal, which will take place on June 27 in Miami. The final match ranked third in terms of applications, while the opening match ranked fourth.
