With the NBA and NHL finals potentially wrapping this week, the World Series still roughly four and a half months away, and the Olympics two years out, the quadrennial global soccer tournament fills the gap as the biggest game in town for the next 39 days. An estimated 5 billion people worldwide are expected to tune in.
North American Host Nations
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will feature forty-eight teams and sixteen host cities. Canada, Mexico, and the United States are co-hosting this year's edition of the tournament from June 11 to July 19. For the United States, it marks the first time serving as a World Cup host since 1994.
What the World Cup Is
The World Cup is the only soccer tournament where national teams from across the globe compete for the sport's ultimate prize. These national sides function like geographically determined all-star squads, similar in concept to Olympic national teams. Most of the world's top players spend the intervening years with professional clubs in domestic leagues such as England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, or America's Major League Soccer. Every four years, those players reunite with their countrymen for the World Cup. Since soccer is the world's biggest sport, the resulting spectacle is the biggest sporting event on the planet.
It is the most prestigious, most lucrative, most-viewed single-sport tournament in the history of mankind.
While other sporting events have similar impacts on one or a few countries, none sweep up dozens of nations, and perhaps entire continents, like the World Cup.
For North American audiences, the tournament is effectively happening everywhere at once.
Opening Matches and Early Results
Festivities kicked off Thursday, June 11, with Mexico vs. South Africa in Mexico City. Mexico 2-0. That evening, South Korea faced Czechia at 10 p.m. ET in Guadalajara. South Korea 2-1.
Canada hosted its first game, Canada vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Friday at 3 p.m. ET in Toronto. The first United States match, USA vs. Paraguay, took place at 9 p.m. ET in Los Angeles.
Group Stage Schedule and Host Cities
From June 13 through June 27, four to six round-robin group stage matches will be played every single day. Venues include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle in the United States, plus Monterrey in Mexico and Vancouver in Canada, in addition to the initial host cities used for the opening fixtures.
Sixteen teams will exit the tournament after June 27. The remaining sides advance into increasingly difficult single-elimination knockout games, mostly in the United States, running from June 28 through July 15.
Final Match
The 2026 World Cup final is scheduled for MetLife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey area at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 19.
Kickoff Ceremonies and Musical Guests
Each country's opening kickoff match is receiving its own pregame program, complete with big-name musical guests for fans who follow ceremony and halftime style programming as closely as the matches themselves.
Performers who took part include:
- Alejandro Fernández
- Los Ángeles Azules
