There are only two days left before the opening game of the 2026 United States, Canada and Mexico World Cup, and the ticket market for this event is experiencing a rare cold situation. According to the authoritative statistics of FIFA's official resale platform, multiple media confirmed that there are currently 176,000 tickets listed for sale on the platform, with a total volume of nearly 180,000. The vast majority of unsold tickets are concentrated in the group stage, and the pressure on ticket inventory is highlighted.
Tickets for popular events on the eve of previous World Cups are hard to come by, and the second-hand resale market generally sells them at a premium. Hoarding tickets and reselling them is almost a guaranteed profit-making business.
However, the market situation of this event has reversed. Ticket prices on the official resale platform have continued to fall. The median ticket price has dropped by 20% in the past month. Price reductions are still difficult to drive transactions.
In addition to falling prices, high transaction fees set by FIFA further compress resellers' profit margins.
Data shows that the FIFA platform charges a 26% handling fee for each resale transaction, which adds up to a 20% drop in ticket prices. The vast majority of sellers who purchased tickets in advance and planned to resell them for cash have actually fallen into losses.
Judging by games and teams, the popularity divide is extremely obvious. A total of 16,000 tickets for the Iranian team's three group matches are still unsold, and the lowest resale price for ordinary seats is only $138;
The Saudi team, which has a high-quality draw and faces Spain and Uruguay, has an average of nearly 3,900 tickets remaining in a single game of the group stage, and the median ticket price has even dropped below the original face price.
Even the host team, the United States, was not spared. For the first group match between the United States and Paraguay, there were still 4,400 tickets listed for sale on the resale platform. The home field advantage failed to support ticket sales.
It is reported that the current World Cup has expanded to 48 teams, the total number of matches has increased significantly, the scale of ticket supply has expanded simultaneously, FIFA has increased basic ticket prices, and the comprehensive cost of local travel and viewing in North America has been relatively high, which has combined to cause demand to be lower than expected.
FIFA has previously stated that all tickets for the event have been sold out, but now a massive backlog of tickets has been accumulated on resale platforms. This statement is in clear contrast with the market reality.
