Tickets to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup are already proving hard to find and tough on the wallet. But fans looking to catch the action from home will have plenty of ways to tune in when the tournament kicks off on Thursday, June 11.
The event spans the United States, Mexico, and Canada, bringing a massive 104 matches to screens worldwide. U.S. team captain Tim Ream recently summed up the sheer scale of the event to CBS News.
“Imagine, with this World Cup, a Super Bowl every single day for five weeks,” Ream said. “It’s not an accident that 5 billion people will be watching.”
FOX and NBCUniversal hold the broadcasting rights for all the games, which include 78 matches in the U.S. and 13 each in Canada and Mexico.
English-language viewers can catch a large portion of the tournament without a cable subscription. Anyone with a TV antenna or access to the FOX network through a smart TV can watch 70 of the matches for free. This includes a record 40 games airing during primetime. The remaining matches will be broadcast on the cable channel Fox Sports 1.
For Spanish-language coverage, NBC-owned Telemundo will show 92 of the 104 games for free. The rest of the Spanish broadcasts will air on the Universo cable network.
Streaming is also a major option for cord-cutters. Fox’s ad-supported platform, Tubi, will stream the first two games of the tournament entirely for free. That includes the opening match between Mexico and South Africa on June 11, along with the United States’ opening game against Paraguay on June 12.
Beyond Tubi, fans can stream matches through the FOX Sports app and FOX One. Peacock holds the exclusive rights for streaming the games in Spanish. Standard live TV streaming services like YouTube TV, Fubo, and Hulu + Live TV will also carry the networks showing the games for those paying a regular subscription fee.
The U.S. Men’s National Team will stay on the West Coast for their three group stage matches in June. They start out at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, playing Paraguay on Friday, June 12 at 9 p.m. ET. One week later, on Friday, June 19, they take on Australia at 3 p.m. ET at Lumen Field in Seattle. The U.S. wraps up their first-round play back at SoFi Stadium to face Turkey on Thursday, June 25 at 10 p.m. ET.
The tournament officially begins with co-host Mexico playing South Africa in Mexico City on June 11. The group stage runs through June 27, followed immediately by the knockout rounds starting on June 28. After five weeks of daily matches, it all comes to an end on July 19 with the World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
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