Argentina captain Lionel Messi kisses the FIFA World Cup Trophy.
Tickets for the 2026 FIFA World Cup went on presale on Wednesday morning, with the U.S. set to host the global soccer tournament for the first time since 1994.
While fans may think they should scoop up tickets ASAP before they all sell out, the best strategy for scoring World Cup 2026 seats looks to be more complicated – and it may actually pay to wait. That’s because FIFA is using dynamic pricing in the World Cup for the first time.
Dynamic pricing is an event-pricing model where flat ticket prices are not set; instead, prices change in real time based on demand. Higher demand for an event generally means higher prices, while the opposite can be true for lower demand, which can lead to lower prices. Ticketing demand is often impacted by interest in the event – but some ancillary factors like the weather, the time of the event and the teams that qualify for each tournament round could also all influence how much you pay.
So while ticket prices for next year’s World Cup will range initially from $60 for group-stage matches to $6,730 for the final, the final cost could change.
“Those prices are going to change with time as we get closer to the event,” Christopher Anderson, a professor at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business who has researched event operations and dynamic pricing, told MarketWatch.
More sports are playing with dynamic pricing – upsetting some fans
Dynamic pricing is being used for many U.S. sporting events these days – including leagues like the NFL, the NBA and MLB, as well as tours by major musical artists such as Drake. But on the flip side, some sports teams and many European soccer clubs, as well as artists like Taylor Swift, have opted out of dynamic pricing, as the model has often sparked backlash from customers.
Some fans have railed against dynamic prices at concerts and sporting events for several reasons, including the perception of price gouging and a lack of transparency around what influences prices, among other reasons.
“The issue with dynamic pricing is one person can pay $50 and one can pay $500 [and they can be sitting] right beside one another,” Anderson said. “The differences are not tangible, and then we get the backlash.”
When FIFA announced that it would be using a dynamic pricing model for the 2026 World Cup, for example, some soccer fans took to social media to complain – especially after how dynamic pricing impacted some ticket prices for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. That was a new club tournament that took place in the U.S. this past summer featuring European teams like Italy’s Juventus (IT:JUVE) and England’s Chelsea.
While fans may be wary about the dynamic pricing model that FIFA is set to use for the 2026 World Cup, it’s still unclear what the demand might be like for the event, and therefore what the final pricing may end up looking like. But last summer’s Club World Cup could give fans some clues.
Three days before the Club World Cup semifinal in July, for example, a standard admission ticket for that game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey cost $473.90. But on the day of the match – which featured Chelsea against Brazilian powerhouse Fluminense – tickets plummeted to just $13.40 for the same standard admission seats, per the Athletic.
The drastic change meant two fans could be sitting in the same section of the same soccer match, but one fan would have paid a price 35 times higher than the other.
The same story could be told for several other matches at the Club World Cup, including a semifinal between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain on July 9, which saw standard admission prices fluctuating from $978 to $199 the week of the game.
Some fans who score a deal through dynamic pricing may celebrate their bargain price, but those who pay premium prices for similar seats at the same match likely won’t be too pleased.
“It’s human nature – we forget the great deal we got, [and] we feel the pain of the big loss more. We perceive those things differently,” Anderson explained. “Individuals who got great deals on the last-minute details, that euphoria is drowned out by the perception of gouging.”
When’s the best time to buy tickets when dynamic pricing is in play?
FIFA defended its stance on dynamic pricing after the Club World Cup. And Heimo Schirgi, chief operating officer of the World Cup, told soccer fans to “get your tickets early, because anything could happen.”
“It’s key to highlight FIFA’s mission and FIFA’s objective of providing funding, providing opportunities, providing growth to our sport across all the 211 member associations,” Schirgi said in a statement. “And as part of that mission, which we take very seriously, we’re looking at optimizing the revenue, but also optimizing attendance in the stadium, right? So, it’s always a balance between different factors.”
So should fans rush to get their 2026 World Cup tickets ASAP, or wait to see where dynamic pricing goes? It’s difficult to yet say – but if the World Cup follows the same path as the Club World Cup, then patient fans could potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, by waiting and watching prices.
Anderson, for one, believes fans should think twice about snapping up World Cup tickets early.
“Most firms that use dynamic pricing have some U-shaped price history. Prices tend to be higher early on, and in the middle is when there are deals to be had because there is a mismatch of supply and demand,” he said. “Then prices get higher closer to the event, and in some cases price may drop [at the] last second right at the tail, like with the Club World Cup.”
But dynamic pricing isn’t the only factor complicating the hunt for 2026 World Cup tickets.
Here’s how to get your tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup
The process for purchasing tickets will also send soccer fans jumping through hoops.
The World Cup takes place in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next summer from June 11 through July 19. The initial presale drawing period for tickets was underway as of Wednesday morning, and will run from Sept. 10-19 on FIFA’s website – but it’s limited to Visa cardholders who’ve signed up for a FIFA ID account. The winners of that random drawing will be notified beginning on Sept. 29, and they will then be able to purchase tickets starting Oct.1.
A second phase of the ticket-drawing process will begin in late October, with the “early ticket draw” expected to take place between Oct. 27-31. Winners from that drawing will be given a purchase window sometime between mid-November and early December, FIFA said.
Then the third phase of the ticketing lottery will start after Dec. 5, which will be a random selection draw, FIFA announced. The remaining ticket inventory will be available at a later date “on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Some fans were already complaining about the process on Wednesday morning as the first World Cup presale opened up.
The nations in next year’s tournament are yet to be finalized, but the quadrennial tournament is expanding this time from 32 nations to 48, and from 64 games to 104.
Hospitality packages for the World Cup already went on sale in May. Prices for the eight matches being held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., including the final on July 19, currently range from $3,500 to $73,200 per person.
