World Cup Data: 1 in 4 Americans Plan to Watch While On The Clock

The World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world, with billions of fans tuning in on TV and streaming platforms every four years when the newest edition kicks off. This year, the World Cup is being hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the final taking place at MetLife Stadium, where a new world champion will be crowned.

The U.S. last hosted the event in 1994, and while soccer's popularity has grown since then, it remains a secondary sport in the U.S. But with the Cup playing out in our backyard, will more Americans care in 2026? We surveyed a sample of 1,000 Americans to find out how many plan to watch (and how many plan to blow off work to tune in), who they're rooting for, and whether they knew the tournament was happening this year.

Key findings

• About 50% of Americans plan to watch the World Cup in 2026, though more than 1 in 4 (26%) didn't actually know it was being hosted in the U.S. when asked.
• A quarter of U.S. adults plan to watch World Cup matches at work.
• 17% of U.S. adults with World Cup rooting interests will split their support between the USA and another country equally, while 13% will be cheering on another country exclusively.
• More than one-in-five Americans (22%) pretend to know soccer rules during the World Cup.

How many Americans will watch the World Cup?

World Cup matches are scheduled in 11 different cities across the United States this summer, bringing millions of tourists and dozens of special events to those cities. Despite the planning, media, and awareness campaigns, only 50% of Americans plan to watch the World Cup in 2026.

While 50% (half) doesn't seem like a lot of Americans for an event of this magnitude, it actually represents a sharp increase in popularity for the sport. Roughly 50 million Americans watched the World Cup in 2022, and only 27% of Americans consider themselves soccer fans, suggesting this World Cup will draw new eyes to the sport.

Still, that doesn't mean the awareness campaign has reached all corners of the U.S. Despite the size of the World Cup and the potential impacts it could have on so many major American cities, more than 1 in 4 American adults, 26%, did not know there is a tournament this year, much less that it is being partially hosted in the United States.

How will the World Cup Affect Work Productivity?

For the 2026 World Cup, matches are scheduled to take place for more than five weeks in June and July, with some starting as early as noon Eastern time. That means that many matchups will take place during traditional working hours in the United States. Overall, 1 in 4 Americans say they plan to watch World Cup matches while on the clock.

Among the 50% who plan to watch, 49% say they won't let work get in the way of big matches — meaning roughly 1 in 4 Americans overall plans to watch while on the clock. The increase in remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic may be contributing to that number, as it is easier to watch something during work hours while working from home. Taken together, that means around one-quarter of all U.S. workers will tune in to the World Cup at some point while on the clock. Some fans are taking it a step further than just watching while they are supposed to be working, as around 8% of workers say they will skip work entirely and use their time off to watch matches uninterrupted.

Calculating productivity loss due to the World Cup

With so many people watching instead of working, we wanted to calculate the potential economic impact of work hours and productivity lost to the World Cup.

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (February 2026), there are 162.9 million workers currently employed in the United States. Of that group, around a quarter (24.7%, to be exact) plan to watch matches on the clock. That comes out to around 40.2 million U.S. workers watching the World Cup at work nationwide.

Over the course of the World Cup, 104 matches will be played. Around 44% to 57% of those matches will be played between traditional working hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday) in the United States, depending on the time zone. That means most workers will have the opportunity to watch around 50 matches on the job. Viewing habits differ from person to person, and some workers will watch full matches whenever they can, while others will just pop in to catch a few minutes here and there of specific games they are interested in. To account for these differences, we will use an estimate of around 3 hours of soccer (about 2 full matches) watched while on the clock per worker over the five weeks of the World Cup. Multiplied across 40.2 million workers, at 3 hours each, that comes to around 120.6 million hours of lost productivity.

Per the BLS, the average worker in the U.S. makes $37.32 per hour. If we multiply that amount by the number of hours lost to workers watching soccer, the overall economic impact comes out to around $4.5 billion in productivity lost in the U.S. because of the World Cup.

Who are Americans rooting for in the World Cup?

The United States of America will be celebrating 250 years as a nation while the World Cup is being hosted here, which may increase patriotism among U.S. soccer fans.

In fact, 87% of respondents who say they have specific rooting interests say they will be supporting the USA during the World Cup, with 70% saying they will be cheering for the U.S. exclusively and 17% saying they will be cheering for the United States and another team in equal measure.

That means that more than one-tenth (13%), won't support the American team and will cheer for another country instead. Among fans who either wholly or partially favor a non-US team, Mexico, Brazil, and England are the three most popular choices in terms of foreign rooting interests.

How much are Americans willing to spend on a World Cup Ticket?

With so many games being played in the United States, it is easier than ever for U.S. soccer fans to see a World Cup match in person, as long as they're willing to pony up some dough.

The event's enormity and popularity may be pricing the average fan out. The average amount survey respondents said they would be willing to pay for a World Cup ticket of any kind is $151, but according to SeatGeek, the lowest "get-in" price for any match is $193 for a pool-play match between Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. Fans looking to watch the U.S. team play in person would need to pony up nearly $1,100 for a ticket to their cheapest pool play game (more than 7 times what the average fan says they'd spend), while the lowest cost ticket to watch the World Cup Final in person comes with a price tag of $8,743, nearly 60 times more than the $151 average amount fans say they would be willing to pay.

All ticket costs discussed here were found on SeatGeek on March 19, 2026.

How much do Americans know about soccer?

The World Cup will be particularly hard for Americans to avoid this year, thanks to the USA's co-host role, which may not be ideal for anyone lacking soccer knowledge.

Nearly half the population, 47%, say they never watch professional soccer (outside of the World Cup), which may make it harder for them to talk knowledgeably about the key teams and players in the World Cup, to say nothing of the general rules of soccer.

In fact, among all U.S. adults, we found that more than one-in-five, 22%, pretend to understand soccer rules during the World Cup.

Ask the experts

The World Cup is a huge event bound to bring in tourists from all across the world. We asked experts for their insights on how events like these affect the host country's economy.

How do large-scale events like the World Cup affect a city's local economy?

Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu

Chair & Professor of Dept. of Tourism, Hospitality and Event | Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute | University of Florida

Mega-events like the FIFA World Cup create a short-term economic surge, but long-term success comes down to planning. The cities that win aren't just the hosts. They are the ones with a strategy after the final whistle."

Large-scale events like the FIFA World Cup can deliver a powerful, immediate boost to a city's economy, and it's important to understand what that really means. In the short term, we could see a surge in visitors, hotels fill up, restaurants are packed, and local transportation systems are running at full capacity. For a few weeks, the city is essentially operating at peak demand. There's a wave of temporary job creation in hospitality, security, and event operations, and global media exposure that money simply can't buy.

Not all of that economic activity stays local. A significant portion of the revenue flows to international organizations, global sponsors, and large hotel chains. At the same time, regular tourists often avoid the city during the event due to crowds and high prices, which offset some of the gains.

How long do the positive effects of this tourism typically last?

Dr. Rachel J.C. Fu

Chair & Professor of Dept. of Tourism, Hospitality and Event | Director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute | University of Florida

In most cases, the economic boost is short-lived: lasting weeks or a few months at most. Long-term benefits depend entirely on how well the city plans for legacy use. Cities that invest in infrastructure that residents actually use, such as transportation, public spaces, and mixed-use developments, can see lasting returns.

A great example is Barcelona after the 1992 Olympics. They used the event as a catalyst to redesign the city, and tourism growth continued for years. On the other hand, cities that overbuild, especially stadiums, often end up with expensive facilities that are underused and costly to maintain.

Mega-events create a short-term economic surge, but they don't guarantee long-term success.

The cities that benefit are not the ones that simply host the event. They're the ones that treat it as a strategic investment and have a clear plan for what comes next after the final whistle.

Save while watching the World Cup

Even though tickets are expensive, there are still many ways to save this World Cup season

• Earn perks and rewards with ticket purchases. Certain credit cards offer rewards on entertainment purchases, such as World Cup tickets. For example, find out how you can use your Chase card to earn experiences.
• Evaluate your budget. Take some time to look at your current spending. Maybe you're spending money on things you don't love as much as soccer. Some of the best budgeting apps make eliminating unnecessary spending really easy.
• Travel for the World Cup and get rewarded. With the World Cup in the U.S., you can travel domestically with one of the best travel cards to earn rewards and catch a game.

Methodology

FinanceBuzz surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults via a survey platform in March 2026.

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