In the past, a fan’s ability to attend a World Cup hosted in their nation hinged more on bid books than their checkbooks. For 2026 in the US, Mexico and Canada, even the least expensive tickets are a luxury commodity by comparison.
An analysis by the Guardian of men’s World Cup ticket pricing shows that amid the general rise in ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, the most extreme of those hikes have often applied to the cheapest tickets. The analysis is based on official Fifa pricing dating back to 1994, with more robust data available starting in 2006. Prices for 2026 games are accurate as of 16 December 2025, and do not include the 1.6% of sellable tickets for each game that Fifa recently made available for a fixed $60 price.
It’s important to note that Fifa’s dynamic pricing model could see prices for any game fluctuate between now and the tournament. In some cases, they may drop precipitously, as they did just before some games at the 2025 Club World Cup. But for traveling fans – especially those from the four countries who may face visa restrictions – waiting until the last minute to get tickets may not be desirable or feasible.
For now, at the end of 2025 and with the first post-draw phase of ticket sales opening next year, the price rises are most dramatic in the lower categories, greatly raising the barrier for entry for the vast majority of interested fans. This is true across many rounds of the tournament, and especially so for the final.
Category 4 is historically the lowest price point for World Cups, and was previously exclusively available to residents of a hosting nation. The home-town discount was most prominent in 2018, with the lowest prices of the 21st century helping provide Russia with a historic home-field advantage as it reached its first quarter-final since 1970 (as the USSR).
In 2026, not only are the “cheap seats” at least three times pricier in most rounds than they were when Qatar hosted in 2022, there were so few Category 4 seats available that the whole tournament’s inventory sold out before sales opened to the general public, per Fifa.
The most extreme of the price rises are concentrated where you think they might be: in the cities and for the games that carry the most importance, or those involving a host country.
Historically, most World Cup rounds have been priced more expensively than the ones before, with the exception of the third-place match being priced akin to a round-of-16 clash or a quarter-final. That’s true again in 2026. Meanwhile, the nascent round of 32 born from an expanded field is priced similarly to group games.
The limited number of $60 seats at every game with prices capped still represents a five-fold increase over 2022’s Category 4 group-stage entry point.
Dynamic pricing, introduced for this tournament, has been cited as the primary driver of these price increases. The practice allows prices for each game to change based on demand, and that demand has changed markedly since the World Cup draw. Before that point, every game had unknown participants except the nine involving host nations. Afterward, teams were assigned matchups and venues, so people for the first time knew who would be playing.
Here, the power of global stars becomes apparent. Compared with pre-draw ticket prices for each of their group games, Portugal saw the steepest price increases – which can be chalked up to the Cristiano Ronaldo factor. Lionel Messi’s World Cup-holding Argentina come in second. Euro 2024 champion Spain and well-supported South American qualifiers Colombia and Uruguay round out the top five.
Notably, matches involving Iran were the only ones to see a double-digit percentage decrease.
The percentages listed below reflect the post-draw pricing compared with initial pricing for each match as specified by its date and venue.
In total, 91 of the 104 matches saw price increases after December’s draw. Five matches saw their price points go unchanged; eight games saw decreases.
No matter what you end up paying, it’s likely going to be a far cry from the pricing model promised during the bid process in 2018, held during Donald Trump’s first term. This is from the bid book submitted to Fifa:
At the time, the United 2026 organizers strove to start group-game pricing for Category 4 at $21 – within a dollar of 2018’s welcoming price when accounting for inflation. The recent $60 tickets released are still above the planned rates up until the quarter-final stage.
