Redditors Are Using AI to Beat Obscene World Cup Ticket Prices

Jordan vs. Algeria isn’t a soul-stirring World Cup matchup for most soccer fans. They’re the 63rd and 29th best teams in the world, according to FIFA rankings. The game will be played at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium (officially called Levi’s Stadium) in Santa Clara, yet both nations’ diaspora are more heavily concentrated on the East Coast. And alongside exorbitant ticket prices and travel costs, Algerians hoping to make the trip have faced up to $15,000 US visa bond payments. Despite this, FIFA is charging $450 for a so-so view by the corner flag. Yet on its official marketplace, where existing ticket holders can sell, the price has cratered. On May 17, it became the first game to fall below $100 a ticket—a landmark celebrated on the r/WorldCup2026Tickets subreddit. What began as an ordinary soccer fan community for finding tickets to the most-expensive-ever World Cup has transformed into a grassroots, AI-powered movement with its own ticketing infrastructure, operating in near real time. Redditors—r/WorldCup2026Tickets has more than 140,000 members—report on surprise ticket drops from FIFA, sharing game availability and price volatility. They post DIY tools that unearth cut-price deals, then exchange tickets on back channels, hurting the back pockets of FIFA and scalpers. In recent weeks, as prices for marquee games fell below face value, the subreddit has been filled with “do not buy” posts and “HOLD” memes, echoing the 2021 GameStop phenomenon on r/WallStreetBets, as fans are hoping ticket prices will plummet even further. “The ‘HOLD’ culture has grown significantly,” says Luke, a Chicago-based member of r/WorldCup2026Tickets who asked that his last name be withheld over privacy concerns. “It started as price frustration but has evolved into an almost coordinated resistance against both FIFA's pricing and scalper markups.” Beyond complaints about the sky-high prices, FIFA has been accused of creating artificial scarcity, offering an opaque ticketing process that drip-feeds inventory and offers no straightforward way of comparing prices. It’s also the first World Cup with dynamic pricing and uncapped resale listings—one ticket to the final on July 19 is priced at $11.5 million. FIFA, a nonprofit, pockets 30 percent commission with each resale, evenly split between the buyer and seller. On May 27, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey subpoenaed FIFA as part of an investigation into its ticketing practices. This system has led to many resellers profiting—and many fans overpaying. But as more and more prices rose into the four figures, Redditors decided to fight back, building free ticket-analysis tools and sharing them with everyone on r/WorldCup2026Tickets. On April 18, Luke released SeatSidekick. Built in just five days with Claude Code, the website received 178,000 unique visitors and over a million pageviews within a month of launching. It scans the backend of FIFA’s ticketing website to provide near-live data of seat availability, sorted by price, presenting fans with a user-friendly interface. It also features trend data and alerts to inform seat-seekers of potential bargains. And it’s working. Luke points to France vs. Senegal, a premier New York matchup featuring stars like Kylian Mbappé and Sadio Mané. Its get-in price dropped 25 percent over two weeks in May, to around $450—a relative snip. “People are sharing price drops as victories and encouraging others to wait,” he says. “It's become part community support, part figuring out ways to combat scalpers.” Fans are also using the platform to weed out scammers. “Someone on Reddit posts that they have two tickets available for an obscene amount, and the next comment says, ‘Yeah, but SeatSidekick is showing the same section as $500 cheaper,’” Luke says. “It’s helping to prevent scalpers taking advantage of fans.”