January 15, 2026
Yukihito Taguchi/Imagn Images
FIFA said Brazil was one of the non-host countries with the most World Cup ticket requests. The Brazilian national team, pictured above during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, will play Haiti in a group-stage match at Lincoln Financial Field on June 19.
Fans continue to clamor for tickets to the World Cup, with FIFA saying it received over half a billion requests during its recently closed random selection draw.
That ticket phase, which kicked off Dec. 11 and ended Tuesday, lasted just over a month. Over that time period, fans made an average of 15 million ticket requests per day. That's a new record for a World Cup, according to the organization, and a significant jump from the roughly 150 million requests it reported in late December. Officials said they received requests from all 211 countries and territories with soccer teams in the federation.
For the entire tournament, there are 7 million tickets available in the 16 host cities across Mexico, Canada and the United State, and about 2 million tickets were sold in the first two rounds of sales.
"Half a billion ticket requests in just over a month is more than demand – it’s a global statement," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. "On behalf of FIFA, I would like to thank and congratulate football fans everywhere for this extraordinary response."
Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field will host six matches — five group stage and one knockout round:
• Sunday, June 14, at 7 p.m.: Côte d'Ivoire vs. Ecuador
• Friday, June 19, at 9 p.m.: Brazil vs. Haiti
• Monday, June 22, at 5 p.m.: France vs. Playoff Winner (Iraq/Bolivia/Suriname)
• Thursday, June 25, at 4 p.m.: Côte d'Ivoire vs. Curaçao
• Saturday, June 27, at 5 p.m.: Croatia vs. Ghana
• Saturday, July 4, at 5 p.m.: Round-of-16 match
The highest number of ticket requests came from the tournament's three host countries, but FIFA said fans in Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Colombia also flooded the online portal for seats. Anyone who applied for tickets will hear back no earlier than Feb. 5 if they made the cut.
FIFA also released the most-requested games from the random draw. None of the matches at Lincoln Financial Field cracked the top five, though a few games in the U.S. did. The most popular pick was the Colombia vs. Portugal match in Miami scheduled for June 27, followed by Mexico vs. Korea Republic in Guadalajara on June 18. The other three most-requested matches were the final in New Jersey on July 19, the opener between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City on June 11 and the Round-of-32 game in Toronto on July 2.
Fans will have one final chance to score tickets during the last-minute sales phase this spring. FIFA officials expect it to open in early April.
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