World Cup 2026 tickets sell fast as travel, visa plans loom

Nearly two million tickets have already been snapped up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, turning the race for seats into a wider test of whether fans can actually get to the matches. With new tickets released for all 104 games on April 22, the pressure has shifted from buying admission to lining up flights, rooms and border paperwork before the tournament opens June 11.

The event will be the first men’s World Cup with 48 teams, spread across Canada, Mexico and the United States in 16 host cities from Toronto and Vancouver to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Los Angeles and New York New Jersey. The opening matches will begin June 11, including Mexico v South Africa in Mexico City and Korea Republic v Czechia in Guadalajara, while the United States will start play June 12 with USA v Paraguay in Los Angeles. That compressed calendar gives international fans little room for delay if they still need tickets, lodging or last-mile travel arrangements.

FIFA has also moved to capture demand through official hospitality packages sold with On Location, its hospitality provider. Those packages can include premium seating, food and beverage, shared or private suites, and other matchday experiences, a sign that the tournament’s most reliable inventory is already being packaged well above face value. For many travelers, especially those crossing an ocean, the real question is no longer whether the event is sold out but how much it will cost to make the trip workable.

The biggest friction point is entry into the United States. FIFA has launched FIFA PASS, the FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System, to help ticket purchasers and their ticketed guests travel through the visa application process. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says fans should review passports, visas, the Visa Waiver Program and Form I-94 before traveling, while the State Department says some international travelers may enter without a visa if they qualify for visa-free travel. For eligible travelers using the Visa Waiver Program, the official ESTA application requires a valid passport, a selfie photo, contact information and a $40.27 fee.

CBP said in March that it had already approved more than 1 million ESTA authorizations for travelers from World Cup-qualified nations in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2026, underscoring how quickly the administrative side is scaling up before the first whistle. If the stadiums are ready, the more embarrassing bottleneck could come elsewhere: at hotel desks, airline counters and visa checkpoints, where the distance between a bought ticket and a watched match is still measured in forms, fees and time.