Thousands of tickets remain unsold for the United States’ high-priced World Cup opener, with data captured by The Athletic and other sources suggesting that the game is not on pace to sell out at current prices and purchasing rates.
As of Thursday evening, two weeks before the 2026 World Cup begins, there were more than 3,500 tickets available on FIFA’s primary portal for the June 12 match between the U.S. and Paraguay.
There were also over 6,500 tickets listed on FIFA’s resale platform, meaning there are over 10,000 tickets available for the match, which was initially billed as one of the tournament’s most attractive games.
The 6,500 (and many more listed on third-party resale sites) are tickets that have been sold or distributed, either to fans or scalpers, but are now being offered to prospective buyers. It’s unclear how many would be used if they don’t re-sell.
The 3,500, on the other hand, have not been sold, and there could be even more not yet listed for sale. FIFA has held back tickets throughout the sales process, and does not publicly reveal sales or availability data.
Throughout the month of May, there have seemingly been more tickets added by FIFA to the portal than sold for the U.S. curtain-raiser at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles.
Exact numbers are difficult to gauge, but according to inventory trackers, plus data observed and logged by The Athletic, the tickets seemed to be selling at a rate of a few dozen per day.
Meanwhile, many of the tickets available on FIFA’s resale platform and third-party sites are listed for less than FIFA’s primary prices, and some for less than half of FIFA’s prices — even after fees and taxes are taken into account.
The dipping market rate has raised questions about how FIFA plans to fill the stadium, which will hold around 69,650 people for World Cup matches.
FIFA has been selling tickets to the U.S. opener for $2,735 in Category 1, $1,940 in Category 2 and $1,120 in Category 3 ever since sales began last October. And the global soccer governing body — which has been roundly criticized (and now investigated) for its ticketing practices — has not budged from those price points even as sales lagged behind expectations.
The Athletic reported last month that sales for U.S.-Paraguay were also lagging behind other matches at SoFi Stadium. A document dated April 10 and distributed to local organizers listed 40,934 tickets purchased for the U.S. match, compared with 50,661 for the Iran-New Zealand game three days later at the same venue.
The USA’s World Cup opener will be a rematch of a November friendly that the Americans won on this Folarin Balogun goal (Kyle Ross / Imagn Images)
It was unclear if the numbers included hospitality and other types of tickets that weren’t sold to the general public. FIFA, when asked to clarify, declined to provide that context. In a statement, a FIFA spokesperson said at the time that “it would be misleading and irresponsible to publish [the sales] figures as fact,” but did not say why.
The figures added to extensive evidence of slow sales for that match, and the body of evidence has only grown since.
FIFA had been holding back tickets for most or all matches, and has released many of those tickets in batches throughout April and May. For many games, each batch of tickets sells quickly, a sign of strong demand; but for U.S.-Paraguay and a handful of others, the pattern has been different.
On May 7, FIFA added thousands of new U.S.-Paraguay tickets to its portal, upping the total number of available seats to more than 5,000. A few of them, or perhaps dozens, sold. Then, sometime over the next 24 hours, around 3,000 of those tickets disappeared. Entire rows, blocks and even sections of seats were seemingly removed.
It’s unclear why or where those tickets are now. FIFA has not answered a set of emailed questions seeking clarity.
Over the weeks that followed, more than 2,000 tickets remained steadily available for the June 12 match. Some would sell, others would appear, always in relatively small numbers.
Then, on Thursday, FIFA released another big batch, adding more than 1,000 tickets and bringing the total number of seats not yet sold to at least 3,500.
It’s not known whether there are more tickets being held back beyond the 3,500 that were available as of Thursday night. FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s reasoning for the hold-backs has been that “we want to keep a few for continuous sale until the start of the tournament to give opportunities to latecomers.” Ticketing experts have explained that the strategy is a common one, and creates the illusion of scarcity or strong demand, which might encourage fans to buy.
FIFA did seemingly make one pricing concession on Thursday: It is no longer selling “Front Category 1” tickets for higher prices for the U.S. opener. It has been doing that for all matches throughout much of April and May, but for U.S.-Paraguay, front-row seats are now priced as standard Category 1 or 2 seats — $2,735 or $1,940.
To fill unsold seats, FIFA could potentially lower prices over the two weeks between now and the game; it could also give tickets away to certain groups, such as military veterans or youth soccer organizations.
FIFA spokespeople have been approached for comment.
What to make of the latest ticket release
Beyond the U.S. opener, tens of thousands of other tickets, for all 104 World Cup matches, were also released Thursday.
Some seemed to be in prime sections that, at one point, were allocated to hospitality packages. Their appearance on the FIFA portal could be an indication that FIFA is converting seats that were once available as hospitality tickets to standard Category 1 seats.
For example, at the Iran-New Zealand match, several hundreds of tickets were made available in several 200-level and 300-level sideline sections that, per stadium maps within a hospitality brochure, were marked as potential “Trophy Lounge” or “Champions Club” selections.
On Location, the company to which FIFA has outsourced the 2026 World Cup hospitality program, said in a news release earlier this week that it has “allocated” more than 500,000 hospitality packages across the 104 matches. The number is a World Cup record but also well short of the roughly 1 million premium tickets that On Location initially set as a maximum, per Sports Business Journal.
This means that, over past several months, hundreds of thousands of tickets initially reserved for hospitality were likely flipped to Category 1 tickets.
It’s not entirely clear how many tickets were made available Thursday, but data collected and analyzed by TicketData.com’s Keith Pagello suggested that the total inventory across all matches had risen by more than 70,000, to over 100,000, before the number quickly fell due to immediate sales.
Some matches saw the newly-released tickets quickly snapped up; but others still had plenty of availability as of Friday morning.
FIFA has consistently said, to varying degrees, that there is high demand for World Cup tickets. “Ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup remain strong with a high degree of interest for all matches,” a spokesperson told The Athletic last month.
Many matches will likely sell out, though ticket brokers and the resale market have complicated analysis of what attendance will actually look like throughout the tournament, which begins June 11 with Mexico vs. South Africa at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
The U.S. and Canada openers are a day later.
U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson, when asked Thursday about the unsold tickets for U.S.-Paraguay, said: “Our team has been working with FIFA throughout the tournament around ensuring they have the support they need for a successful World Cup this summer. … We of course need and want amazing home support.”
He also took the opportunity to promote the U.S. men’s national team’s two send-off friendlies. The second, against Germany in Chicago on June 6, has already sold out. The first, against Senegal in Charlotte this Sunday, has not sold quite as well. Only half of the upper deck at Bank of America Stadium will be open, and thousands of tickets remain available in the other half.
