Despite FIFA’s claim that every 2026 World Cup match was already sold out, new ticket sales have revealed a different reality. While demand for major fixtures remains enormous, some matches including the United States opener have struggled to sell at current prices, offering a rare glimpse into the true dynamics of World Cup ticket demand.

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Six days after FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed that “every” 2026 World Cup match is “already sold out,” FIFA unexpectedly launched an effort to sell more World Cup tickets.

Fans received emails advertising an “exclusive additional chance to purchase,” with the warning that “availability is extremely limited.” From Wednesday onward, tickets were offered for at least 64 of the tournament’s 104 matches, according to supporters who shared screenshots and information with The Athletic.

The unexpected sale raised questions among ticketing experts. Some believe it may be the clearest evidence so far that FIFA may have overstated demand for certain World Cup matches or more accurately that prices have pushed parts of that demand out of reach.

“When they say there’s incredibly high demand for this World Cup, of course that’s true,” ticketing industry veteran Jim McCarthy told The Athletic. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a whole bunch of games that are going to need some marketing support, and probably are still overpriced.”

It remains unclear why FIFA created this surprise sales window. One source suggested the inventory might consist of tickets that had originally been allocated to broadcasters or sponsors but were not ultimately taken. Others believe the tickets were simply unsold inventory left over from the main lottery phase known as the Random Selection Draw, which concluded last month.

Either way, the matches included in the new window were clearly ones FIFA had not completely sold out, despite Infantino’s claim and despite a reported 508 million ticket requests.

That massive number, according to McCarthy, “doesn’t tell the whole story.”

The full picture appears to be that certain World Cup games have indeed generated extraordinary demand, particularly those that were not included in last week’s ticket offering. When fans logged into the portal on Wednesday and Thursday, they could not find tickets for the final or either semifinal. Matches involving Argentina, England or Mexico were also missing.

For Brazil, Colombia, Canada, the United States, Scotland, Morocco and France, at least two of their three group stage matches were unavailable. This pattern was almost certainly intentional. These matches, along with the quarterfinals and round of 16 ties, account for enormous interest in the lottery system even at FIFA’s premium prices.

The remaining fixtures tell a different story. Games featuring teams such as New Zealand, Austria or Saudi Arabia were among those available.

The selection of matches was not random. It did not appear to be a simple case of tickets returning to the market after payment failures during the Random Selection Draw. While some of those situations may have existed, the pattern looked far more like leftover inventory.

Most of the available seats were Category 1 and Category 2 tickets, the most expensive tiers, for matches involving non top seeded nations. Some sold quickly. Others did not.

For many observers, the surprise window offered a revealing glimpse into the real structure of World Cup ticket demand. It highlighted which matches were heavily oversubscribed in the lottery phase and which could still appear again in a later last minute sales phase expected in April.

Perhaps the most surprising example involved the United States opening match against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles.

When the Los Angeles sales window opened at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, tickets for that match were readily available. They remained available hours later and were still on sale throughout Thursday and into Friday morning. On FIFA’s ticket portal, the match did not even carry the “limited availability” label applied to other games as fans rushed to secure seats.

Why would the host nation’s opening match struggle to sell out?

The likely explanation lies in the price. FIFA set Category 1 tickets for the game at 2,735 dollars and Category 2 seats at 1,940 dollars. When sales first opened in October, the match was the third most expensive game of the entire tournament, sitting between the two semifinal fixtures.

As a result, many supporters of the U.S. men’s national team appear to have shifted their attention elsewhere. According to fans who spoke with The Athletic, many prioritized the second group match in Seattle or the final group stage game in Los Angeles, both of which cost less than a third of the opener’s price.

Over the past five months, FIFA has increased prices for several matches. Notably, the U.S. opener was not among them. Some observers interpret this as an acknowledgement that demand has not been as strong as initially expected.

Category 3 tickets priced at 1,120 dollars for that match appear to have sold, but many fans have clearly hesitated when faced with the higher price brackets.

Similar trends appear across other fixtures. In every sales phase, Category 3 tickets and the very limited Category 4 seats have disappeared almost immediately. However, hours after last week’s sale began, matches such as Uruguay against Cape Verde, Jordan against Algeria, Croatia against Ghana and Tunisia against the Netherlands still had large numbers of Category 1 and Category 2 seats available.

In some cases, availability truly was “extremely limited.” France’s group match in Philadelphia and Scotland against Haiti in Boston sold out before some supporters even reached the front of the digital queue. Several knockout round matches were briefly available but quickly snapped up. The third place playoff in Miami also disappeared rapidly.

Other matches told a different story. In those cases, inventory remained plentiful or simply unattractive to buyers. A full list of games made available in the sale was compiled by fans online and shared widely among the football community.

For industry insiders who follow major tournament ticketing closely, the overall takeaway was fairly straightforward.

“They have a lot of inventory they need to move,” Barry Kahn, a former ticketing executive who helped pioneer dynamic pricing in sports, told The Athletic.

“There’s absolutely demand,” Scott Friedman, host of the Ticket Talk show, said. “People obviously want to go. But some games are drastically mispriced.”

Few observers doubt that most 2026 World Cup matches will eventually sell out. With the tournament still more than three months away, the current situation does not necessarily signal a major problem.

The bigger question is how FIFA plans to sell the remaining inventory. Will prices be adjusted, or will marketing efforts simply intensify? It is difficult to know how many tickets were offered in last week’s sale or how many fans were granted access. It is also unclear what inventory might appear during the official last minute sales phase expected in April. FIFA representatives have not provided detailed answers.

Another surprise sale could also appear before April. The ticketing process has already proven unpredictable.

In early February, FIFA informed applicants by email that “the next opportunity to secure tickets will be during the Last Minute Sales Phase,” which its website said would begin “in early April.” Yet only weeks later, many of those same fans received invitations to participate in an unannounced sale.

When asked about the reasoning, FIFA said it had offered the opportunity to applicants who had not previously been selected in the lottery “in order to maximise fairness and acknowledge fans who have already demonstrated strong interest in the tournament.”

McCarthy offered a different interpretation.

“Creating a new window is a sign that they would like to get some completed orders into the system.”

Kahn was even more direct.

“When you have an organization that’s announced a plan, like FIFA did, and when you deviate from the plan, clearly something is wrong.”