World Cup resale prices fall, but team draw drives cost

Resale prices for World Cup matches have dropped by 21% over the past month, but what fans pay still depends heavily on which teams they’re chasing—especially for marquee knockout games and certain group matchups.

For three straight weeks, the numbers on World Cup ticket resales have been moving in the right direction—then the details show why some fans may feel the relief more than others.

Ticket prices for FIFA World Cup games have fallen by 21% over the past 30 days. according to Ticketdata.com. which compiles resale data from sites including StubHub and SeatGeek. The slide hasn’t erased the sticker shock. Even with declines, tickets for later-stage matches are still expected to cost thousands of dollars.

The July 19 final at MetLife Stadium is one of the biggest examples of how demand follows the calendar. Fans would currently have to pay nearly $8,000 to secure a seat for the final—far above the roughly $1,600 face value for the 2022 final.

But in group play, the price drop can look stark. Saudi Arabia’s June 27 game against Cabo Verde currently costs $160 as of Friday, Ticketdata.com shows.

That contrast is where the money tells its story: who you want to see matters, and timing matters more.

The teams with the priciest resales

When it comes to group-stage matchups, Ticketdata.com shows Mexico—hosting 13 of this year’s games—drawing the highest average resale prices at $1,729.

That average jumps for a specific date: Mexico’s June 19 fixture against South Korea at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara is listed at $2,201.

Mexico is followed by three teams described in the data as global heavyweights: Portugal at $1,309, Brazil at $1,286, and Colombia at $1,217.

One group match stands out above the rest. Ticketdata.com lists the Colombia-Portugal game on June 27 as the highest priced of any group-stage match, at $2,515.

Cheaper options for fans chasing the U.S. team

Games involving the U.S. team are priced lower on average, at $872. Those prices have also dropped by more than 30% over the past month, the data shows.

On the other end of the spectrum, some teams are seeing resales dip into the low hundreds rather than the mid-thousands. New Zealand is listed at $267, Iran at $278, and Egypt at $311.

Why prices may keep sliding

Consumer behavior expert Kate Ashley, a professor at Northeastern University, said prices could continue to slide in the weeks ahead. She pointed to FIFA releasing “last-minute” batches through its official terminal. She also suggested some fans may be “sitting on the sidelines” in hopes of additional price drops.

Those expectations feed into the broader question the ticket numbers raise: how much demand is really there?

FIFA’s big demand pitch, and the quieter bookings

In the months before the tournament, FIFA positioned the World Cup as a once-in-history spectacle. The organization’s president, Gianni Infantino, compared interest in this year’s competition to “104 Super Bowls” or “1,000 years of World Cups at once.”

FIFA also projected major economic upside, including a $30-billion boost to the U.S. economy in a joint study with the World Trade Organization in March.

But the price declines seen on resale websites point to something less triumphant. Based on surveys and interviews with hotel industry representatives conducted by Newsweek, bookings are failing to keep pace with forecasts only weeks out from the competition.

Part of the explanation being offered centers on ticketing itself—specifically FIFA’s new demand-based “dynamic pricing” model. The cost has been described as high and fluctuating, and the volume of available tickets that remain unsold has become a pressure point.

Host-city officials have also faulted organizers for effectively prohibiting less affluent U.S. fans from attending.

By now, the market is doing its own bargaining. The overall average decline—21% over the past 30 days—offers a narrow window of relief. Yet the resale spread across teams, from $160 for Saudi Arabia vs. Cabo Verde to nearly $8. 000 for the July 19 final. suggests the World Cup’s biggest price shift may still be about access: who’s willing to pay for the matchups everyone wants. and who can afford to wait for the ones that go down.

World Cup FIFA resale tickets Ticketdata.com StubHub SeatGeek dynamic pricing MetLife Stadium Gianni Infantino Mexico vs South Korea Colombia vs Portugal