How to Buy Tickets to the 2026 World Cup

• Do We Know the 2026 Schedule Yet?
• When Do World Cup 2026 Tickets Go On Sale?
• What Are the Basics of Purchasing World Cup Tickets?
• How Much Do World Cup 2026 Tickets Cost?
• How Are World Cup Tickets Different Than Super Bowl Tickets?
• PREVIOUS World Cup Ticket Pricing for General Sales
• Stay Informed

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A Quick Summary Of This Page

Additionally, this page gets very detailed so if you want a quick summary of 2026, we created a new page for the “essentials”.

Latest Update: Dec 23 2025 – check back as we will continuously update this article and the site!

Do We Know the 2026 Schedule Yet?

Yes! The schedule was announced via livestream on February 04, 2024.

You can see an amazing timelapse of the schedule by host city and dates on a map we put together. Depending on your preference, you can see the timelapse via TikTok or Instagram. Honestly, this timelapse has been quite helpful for us as we try to determine what our future plans may be.

There’s a lot of excitement and after breaking the schedule down into different perspectives, we summarized the schedule in different views as well as added 9 Thoughts / Insights we gathered.

You can also view the schedule on FIFA’s site.

When Do World Cup 2026 Tickets Go On Sale?

General Ticket Sales

Looks like our best guess that we posted on this site for last few years to be between August to October 2025 is true. 😁

Pricing is explained in this article but for click here for specifics for Phase 1 and Phase 2.

All phases take place at FIFA.com/tickets.

• Phase 1 – Lottery Draw (Completed – Visa Card holders only)
  • Register Sept 10 – 19
  • Purchasing Ended Oct 15- Random Lottery Combo
• Phase 2 – Lottery Draw (Completed)
  • Similar to Phase 1, but without Visa Card requirement
  • Registration occurs Oct 27 – 31 at FIFA.com/tickets
  • Starting NOV 12:
    • 72-hour time window for only residents of host countries.
    • 75% of 1M tickets for this phase is allocated here!
  • Starting NOV 17:
    • Global random-selection time slots begin
• Phase 3 – Post Draw in 2025 (We Are Here)
  • December 11 to January 13
  • Random Selection
• Phase 4 – First Come, First Serve
  • 2026 and “closer to the tournament”

Hospitality Tickets (On Sale Now)

Hospitality Tickets are on sale now from FIFA’s Official vendor, On Location.

• Jump to Hospitality Tickets Section

How Can I Buy Tickets Without Knowing The Teams?

Since first general sales tickets phase starts September 10th, 2025 and this is before the World Cup Draw (held in December the year before the tournament), you may be wondering “how do you buy tickets to the World Cup before you know the teams?”

First, you need to know what is meant by “Phase 1” and that is explained below a bit as well as in our generic article about World Cup tickets.

But, back to answering the question…the schedule itself will be known by the time the initial tickets go on sale. The schedule will detail the date, time, stadium and group assignment that will play. We already know the dates and cities of matches from the schedule reveal in Feb 2024, but we haven’t seen groups and matches assigned yet.

This means that the day the tickets go for sale for the first time ever, you will be applying for a ticket without knowing which teams you will watch compete. This applies to group stages and all knockout rounds too – including the final.

For example you may be applying to watch F1 vs F3 in Los Angeles at 3pm on July 1 (note, the specifics here are made up to illustrate the point). Once the draw takes place, you’ll find out which teams are assigned F1 and F3 and who you now have tickets to see.

What Are the Basics of Purchasing World Cup Tickets?

You Need A FIFA Account

All tickets are officially purchased on FIFA’s website and you need an account/FIFA ID.

Go to https://www.fifa.com/en/tickets and look for Register Your Interest for tickets. Your email becomes your FIFA ID.

Tip: You will also need a FIFA ID to use the tickets (or at least someone in your party who has the tickets will need a FIFA ID).

Sales Phases for Face Value Tickets

Complete Sales Phase Picture for 2026:

Per The Athletic on Sep 03, there will be multiple phases for 2026:

• Phase 1 – Random Lottery (Visa Card holders only)
  • Register Sept 10 – 19
  • Purchasing Ends (Latest) Oct 21 – Presale (Phase 1) – Random Lottery Combo
  • More details below…
• Phase 2 – Random Lottery
  • Similar to Phase 1, but without Visa Card requirement
  • Begins Oct 27 – 31
• Phase 3 – Random Selection
  • December 2025
• Phase 4 – First Come, First Serve
  • 2026 and “closer to the tournament”

Resale will occur within FIFA’s platform as well; however Canada / USA will be on a platform separate to Mexico due to different regulations within Mexico for resales.

All sales phases take place on FIFA.com/tickets.

UPDATE: Resale Portal is open now as of Oct 02!

Describing the 3 Types of Sales Phases:

There are 3 Types of “Phases” and they’re known as “Random Lottery“, “Random Selection“, and “First Come, First Serve“.

Random Lottery:

Random lottery is when everyone submits interest to purchase tickets and only a few are granted access.

This expression of interest lasts for a time range. FIFA then starts allocating fans at random to join a specific time window to purchase. Once granted access, the fans can purchase any ticket they see available (per Terms of Sale of course).

Random Draw:

Random Draw is similar to how previous lotteries worked for World Cups.

All fans have access to log into FIFA, express interest in specific matches and # of tickets.

After FIFA allocation, if fans were lucky, they’d have to commit to purchase all tickets allocated or none; you cannot pick and choose.

First Come, First Serve:

This phase is what fans are most familiar with in purchasing tickets. You navigate to the FIFA Ticketing Portal, find the match you want to purchase tickets to, and if there’s availability, you pay via credit card at that time and the tickets are yours.

Types of Standard Tickets for General Sale

Individual Tickets – tickets purchased for a specific match. Please pay attention that FIFA states “Ticket products will be released during different sales phases, though not necessarily in every phase. Availability may vary depending on the timing of your purchase.”

Team Specific Tickets – tickets purchased to follow a specific team. It looks like this will only be valid in 2026 for Group Matches.

Stadium Specific Tickets – tickets purchase to attend every match in a specific stadium. It seems like FIFA will allow one or multi-match packages to be curated for Group Stage + Round of 32 or Round of 16 (whichever is first and applicable to venue). These tickets do not include Opening Match, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Match, Finals.

You can check up on FIFA’s official list here.

What’s Maximum Number of Tickets to Purchase

It varies by tournament. Per The Athletic, it seems like it will be 4 per match, up to 10 matches for 40 total.

Curious how that compares to Qatar 2022 – take a look:

• Here’s the link to the FIFA FAQ page on this topic and a summary of what it says below.
• For the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ you may purchase up to six (6) tickets per match up to a maximum of sixty (60) tickets across the entire FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ competition. However, there is also a household restriction of six (6) tickets per match.

Understanding Transfers / Guest Ticket vs Main Applicant

The person applying for tickets is known as the “Main Applicant“.

Let’s say the “Main Applicant” purchases 2 tickets to the same match. The person that the “Main Applicant” invites is known as the “Guest“. It’s worth understanding these differences, though for 2026, if is much more subtle than previous editions.

In year’s past, FIFA would utilize their own Resale Platform to resell tickets in an effort to reduce scalping by only allowing “Guest” tickets for resale (and done only at Face Value as mentioned earlier).

However, for 2026, this is NOT the case and Main Tickets can be resold. FIFA will still utilize their own Resale Platform but now, they’ll allow tickets to be resold at any price the seller chooses (except in Mexico, where it has to be face value due to local regulations).

It also seems in 2026 that you have two options:

• Transfer a Ticket: Doing so transfers ownership completely. The person receiving it can resell it, etc.
• Send Ticket to a Guest: Doing so sends the ticket to someone else but it is expected by FIFA you are also attending the match and the ticket is not owned by the Guest. The Guest cannot resell or re-transfer the ticket.

3rd Party Reseller Sites / FIFA Resale

UPDATE: The FIFA Resale Portal is live now as of Oct 02!

There are two “secondary markets” you can engage with for World Cup tickets:

1. FIFA’s internal marketplace
2. Sites like StubHub, Ticketmaster, LiveFootballTickets, HelloTickets, etc

Yes, FIFA does operate in its own resale marketplace. In tournaments past, it did NOT allow prices to be set by the seller; however, for 2026, it will allow all citizens (except this of Mexico) participate in “touting” or “scalping” behaviors. Additionally, FIFA takes a 15% fee from both seller and buyer!

Fans may be surprised that listing tickets for resale on a 3rd Party Platform (e.g. StubHub, Ticketmaster, Viagogo, etc) violates the “Terms of Use” by FIFA. You can also read the bullet list on FIFA’s Terms of Sale we did as well.

Of course, these sites will still be active from those that don’t pay attention so proceed with caution and at your own risk and if you use a reseller, make sure they have an airtight policy on refunds (e.g. LiveFootballTickets.com provides 150% refund).

If you’re curious how it’s worked in other tournaments, check this out.

Be Prepared for Mobile Tickets

Unless technology takes a wild U-Turn soon, the tickets will be accessed on a FIFA mobile app. Take a look at the 2023 and 2022 mobile app articles for an idea on how it works.

The app is fairly advanced where tickets use bluetooth to “activate” a unique scannable barcode once the ticket holder is within the stadium grounds on match day.

Screenshots of the barcode will not work for sharing.

FIFA Sponsorship Integrations for Tickets

2026 appears to be the first tournament where you can acquire tickets via multiple sponsorship acquisitions outside of winning a competition. This is possible through the vendor’s partnership with FIFA for 2026.

World Cup Tickets via Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways continues to push full service packages with FIFA and World Cups. Fans can go directly to their site to book their match tickets + flights + ground transportation and depending on which package, potentially ground transfers and accommodation as well!

Follow My Team Package (View Here)

• From $11,600: Includes match tickets, domestic flights, and ground transport.

Knockout Series (View Here)

• From $13,800: Includes match tickets, domestic flights, ground transport and transfers.

Ultimate Package (View Here)

• From $24,950: Includes tickets to the semi-final and final, domestic flights and hotel accommodation.

World Cup Tickets via Verizon

In the case of Verizon, they are giving away 1000’s of free tickets in October + 200 “on the field” experiences in November, with more to come.

World Cup Tickets via American Airlines

In the case of American Airlines, they are allowing AAdvantage Members to use miles to purchase tickets to all 104 matches. With Group Matches starting at 75K miles and the Final at 965K miles, it may only interest those with many miles to spare. The process here starts Oct 13-15th and then again “After the Draw” (Dec 5).

World Cup Tickets via Bank of America

Announced on Instagram and X, Bank of America is running ticket purchases based on new customers that open two different Visa Cash Rewards credit cards between December 04 and January 05 and activates by February 05.

Honestly, it’s quicker to find the details here.

World Cup Tickets via Chase Sapphire Card

Chase Sapphire cardholders will have access to purchase a limited availability of World Cup 2026 tickets via Visa.

When: Feb 10-24, 2026. Guessing more details will eventually show up under: Ultimate Rewards > Experiences

How Much Do World Cup 2026 Tickets Cost?

Confirmed Ticket Pricing Rumor From May 2025

• September 3, 2025, The Athletic officially confirms dynamic pricing + a massive list of other updates.
  • This is definitely a deviation in how FIFA prices tickets for World Cups, in recent times at least.
• However if you want to view ticket prices by Host City at the start of Phase 1, click here.

Let’s break down the cost variables…

Pricing by Categories

NOTE: 2026 will undergo a different structure for Categories!

Straight from FIFA’s site:

• Category 1: The highest-priced seats, located primarily in the lower tier
• Category 2: Positioned outside of Category 1 areas, available in both lower and upper tiers
• Category 3: Located outside of Category 1 and 2 areas, typically in the upper tier
• Category 4: The most affordable category, located outside of Categories 1–3, and positioned in the upper tier
• Accessible Seating Area: Each FIFA World Cup 26™ stadium includes a designated area to accommodate individuals with disabilities and limited mobility.

However, the pricing won’t be static across Categories but you can generally assume for a specific match the levels will change based on the Categories.

Dynamic (sorry, “Variable”) Pricing Though for World Cup 2026

The Athletic article informs us that a FIFA Official said “We will adapt prices as per the demand we see, as per the remaining inventory,”.

This means the starting price could be as low as $60 USD and be as high as $6,730 for the highest price Finals ticket (🤯)…before the actual dynamic model hits.

How does $6,730 compare?

Well…Qatar 2022 was a static price so the greatest ever World Cup (and possibly any) match ever played between Argentina & France was $1,605 for same “Category” (i.e. 319.31% INCREASE!). And it may get worse with the “dynamic” pricing.

Check out all historical prices to World Cups since 1994 here.

Visa Presale Pricing

At the START of the Visa Presale phase, these were the prices of tickets. It varies by Stage of Tournament and Stadium.

The Athletic wrote a brilliant piece that summarizes the day that tickets went live on October 01.

Below is a solid summary of pricing by stages via The Athletic.

But if you want to view the full list of prices by stadium/city at Start of Phase 1, you can do so on this page we compiled.

Official FIFA Hospitality Tickets

As of Jul 14, 2025, Hospitality Tickets for Single Matches & Packages are currently on sale!

• Read this article here or our newsletter subscriber detail for more information on Hospitality Packages and 2026 details.

Single Match HOSPITALITY tickets start at $1,350 USD.

There are many different package bundles that you can select from in Hospitality from “close, central tickets” to a Private Suite. All of these are detailed in the longer form article here since it is a different beast altogether.

A Hospitality Package is essentially a ticket to the match and you get a version of food, drinks, parking, etc + a small gift (for reference, the gift for USA vs England, Qatar 2022, was a keychain).

You can now purchase Single Match Tickets for Hospitality & Contact and Official Sales Agent!

FIFA Collect Digital Marketplace / FIFA Right To Buy (RTBs)

FIFA announced their digital FIFA+ Collect marketplace, which allows you to make digital purchases to acquire rights to purchase tickets. It is a new avenue for 2026.

Essentially, a digital collectible launch occurs where fans can own a digital piece of history and with it, a “Right to Buy” (RTB) 2026 tickets.

What is a Right To Buy (RTB)? There’s not much detail but imagine it is almost a “presale” phase of tickets to acquire tickets before the general public has access.

It is covered in slightly more detail to (free) subscribers in our June Newsletter with additional links.

Be cautious when indulging here as it is ripe for 2nd hand markets and scams but as long as you are lucky enough to get one of the available collectibles, you have a legit RTB.

UPDATE ON RTB CONVERSION TIMELINE:

Here’s a quick summary with more details in the image and you can also go to this official link for more about converting RTBs into World Cup Tickets.

• Buy/sell RTBs of your desire before Nov 13 (when marketplace closes)
• Convert your RTB within your access phase (all Phases end Dec 1)
• Miss deadline and your RTB loses value & becomes untradeable
• Ticket Distribution of RTB’s
  • CAT1 = 70%
  • CAT2 = 28%
  • CAT3 = 2%

2025 Club World Cup & 2026 World Cup Ticket Bundles on FIFA Collect

Removed this section’s details now that 2025 Club World Cup is over. However, it is important to note that FIFA used the FIFA+ Collect platform to drop creative incentives and bundles for the tournament with 2026.

Travel Packages

We detail a bit more regarding a couple legit vendors that provide World Cup Travel Packages.

In fact, the premier luxury travel provider (i.e. if you have a large budget), Roadtrips has already launched their 2026 World Cup offerings. You can select a package for the World Cup Final, Semifinals, Follow a Team, Visit a City or create a custom package.

Seriously – send a message if you’d like to learn more regarding this avenue and we can put you directly in touch (where you can also get a $250 food and drink credit).

Sample from Roadtrips on their 2026 Packages (again, send us a message for an introduction):

How Are World Cup Tickets Different Than Super Bowl Tickets?

A common from the American contingency as there are intense concerns about costs and availability.

Honestly – there’s an entire article that compares Copa 2024 to World Cups so read that article for way more details and illustrations but a very basic summary is below.

There are 4 key differences that are worth mentioning:

Ticket Sales Happen in Phases

And everyone has equal opportunity in all phases. That is, there isn’t a presale code or early access to those that will scalp the tickets (see more below) but instead, a random lottery occurs and then first in line.

Pricing is Split Into 3 to 4 Categories

See Categories above.

Think you’re going to get the Category 4 tickets (i.e. “cheap seats”) – you probably won’t, but you’ll need to squint on the stadium layout to find the seats anyways.

Pricing Transparency

FIFA’s website is the official platform to purchase tickets and again as illustrated above, the face value of tickets is available from Day 1 and isn’t dependent on second hand markets.

Scratch that…not a thing for 2026 due to “variable” pricing.

FIFA Controls Resale Market

It seems like FIFA will control the market still; but allow people to resell at a high price.

Our favorite part about the ticketing, consistent since 2006 has been availability of resale tickets on FIFA’s platform – and at face value. Can’t attend a match? Get your money back by relisting it on FIFA and once it sells, you get a refund. FIFA also instills some guardrails through technology that significantly increases the friction for resale on second-hand markets; additionally, it technically violates terms of use, and there have been cases where people were turned away for violating these terms.

Can FIFA really stop it? No, but FIFA can minimize it. So you will still see people selling second-hand tickets for thousands of dollars above face value, but you can also find resale availability on the FIFA platform.

If people have thousands of dollars to spend on tickets, read up on hospitality tickets and luxury travel packages which may be your preferred method of attending a World Cup.

PREVIOUS World Cup Ticket Pricing for General Sales

You can always review ticket prices of Past World Cups (since 1994) here while we wait for 2026 specifics.

The cheapest ticket in previous tournaments hovered around $70 USD or less in the past for the men. The image of this article reflects tickets in Russia 2018 – Category 3 – at $105 USD. Qatar 2022 was closer to the $70 USD range for CAT3 in the Group Stages.

And it’s wild to reflect on how we purchased tickets to the Women’s England vs Spain 2023 Final in Sydney for equivalent to $25 USD each! The affordability of the 2023 Women’s Tournament is likely an era gone forever due to the astronomical and long overdue growth in that tournament.

What Was The United 2026 Bid Proposal Details (Again, This is from the BID PROPOSAL)

We’re going to leave this here for reference and comparisons…it is the BID PROPOSAL that was submitted in 2018 by USA, Mexico, Canada bid team. It paints a different story from a different era:

• You can access the official 2026 Bid Proposal on FIFA’s website and when you do so, navigate to page 490 and you will see the proposed pricing scheme. And…well…this would be quite the price increase.
• Remember this is only a Bid Proposal and constructed in 2018. Many aspects of the proposal already has changed; and, it is interesting to see where the minds were at vs now. (minds = 💰).

Page 490 in https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/3c077448dcd5c0ab/original/w3yjeu7dadt5erw26wmu-pdf.pdf

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