tickets still – With the 2026 FIFA World Cup about to begin, tens of thousands of tickets remain available—an uncomfortable picture for organizers who once promised every match was sold out. New York and New Jersey officials are probing FIFA’s ticketing system as resale price
For fans refreshing their screens one last time before kickoff. the numbers are stark: tens of thousands of tickets are still available even as the 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to begin. On Wednesday morning. just under 25. 000 tickets were available directly from FIFA—only one day before the competition starts—according to figures from TicketData.com.
FIFA’s site said that its estimate was based on “publicly observable availability data,” and warned that additional tickets could still be released later or allocated to certain groups.
The picture has been shifting quickly. FIFA released around 10,000 tickets on Tuesday, and the organization has said it will keep making seats available in batches in the leadup to and throughout the five-week competition.
But even as organizers insist the market is behaving normally, other data points suggest the demand story isn’t matching the hype.
An analysis by the Financial Times. published this week. found that around 176. 000 seats for group stage games remain listed on FIFA’s resale marketplace—and that prices have been dropping in recent weeks. Separate data shared with Newsweek last Thursday suggested that about 17. 000 seats were available through FIFA’s resale terminal for host nation matches alone.
Newsweek contacted FIFA for comment.
The tournament was initially framed as a historic sellout. Back in February. Gianni Infantino—the FIFA president—said FIFA had received requests for over 500 million tickets and declared that all 104 games were “sold out.” He told CNBC: “We keep some tickets back for some last-minute sales. of course. but every match is sold out.”.
FIFA later walked that statement back, telling The Athletic that it was a projection rather than a real-time reflection of sales. Still, the organization maintains that demand remains “strong” by historical standards.
In late May, a FIFA spokesperson told Newsweek: “More than 5 million tickets have already been sold, and tickets will continue to be made available on a first-come first-served basis at fifa.com/tickets until the end of the tournament as part of the Last-Minute Sales Phase.”
For fans, politicians, and city officials, the tension isn’t just about whether enough seats get sold. It’s about how the ticketing system has been operating—and why the numbers appear to be moving.
One set of scrutiny has come from state attorneys general. In late May. New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport subpoenaed FIFA as part of a joint probe into its World Cup ticketing system. Davenport accused FIFA of turning the ticket-purchasing process into “gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity and impossibly high prices.”.
Around the same time, TicketData.com reported that in late May the number of tickets available directly from FIFA unexpectedly dropped by about 44,000. FIFA did not offer an explanation for the decline.
Some observers noticed a rise in the number of tickets listed on the resale marketplace after that drop, speculating that FIFA may have been shifting inventory to artificially lower resale costs and avoid leaving large numbers of unsold seats.
An analysis by a source familiar with the data who spoke with Newsweek suggested that the volume of tickets that disappeared in late May closely matched the number that then appeared on resale marketplaces. indicating tickets were transferred in bulk from FIFA’s official ticketing system. The source’s account stops short of confirming any official strategy to influence demand or pricing.
Cost remains another pressure point for demand. High prices—whether tickets are bought directly from FIFA or on the secondary market—have also been cited as a reason some fans may be deciding not to attend. Recent surveys of host city hoteliers found booking rates trending below forecasts.
Even where tickets are still purchasable, the remaining inventory looks concentrated. FIFA does not publish internal inventory figures, but third-party estimates suggest many seats could remain unfilled at least for less heavily anticipated fixtures.
Most of what’s still available is on the resale marketplace—either FIFA’s own terminal or third-party sites such as StubHub and SeatGeek—sites where sellers may choose not to use the listings if they cannot find buyers at the asking price.
Prices have moved downward too. The Financial Times reported that resale prices have fallen by around 20 percent over the past month. A Newsweek analysis on Wednesday found that nearly 4. 000 seats are still listed on FIFA’s official resale terminal for the U.S. men’s teams opening fixture against Paraguay.
The sequence of shifting availability and price declines has left fans looking for answers at the worst possible moment: just as travel plans tighten and the World Cup opening whistle gets closer. With the tournament already underway in everything but the calendar page. the question for thousands of would-be buyers is no longer only whether they can find a seat—it’s what the ticket market is actually telling them.
2026 FIFA World Cup tickets FIFA ticket sales TicketData.com Gianni Infantino Letitia James Jennifer Davenport resale marketplace StubHub SeatGeek Last-Minute Sales Phase United States vs Paraguay