How to Watch the 2026 World Cup

Published 10 June 2026 · sports

The FIFA Men’s World Cup is almost here, and this one will be the biggest ever. The tournament is hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada

The FIFA Men’s World Cup is almost here, and this one will be the biggest ever. The tournament is hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the US. The games will be played in stadiums across all three. This World Cup is huge, competition-wise, as it is the first to include 48 teams in the tournament instead of 32 in past World Cups. That means a whole bunch more games are being played over the course of a month. 104 games, to be exact. That’s a lot of football. Here’s how to watch them all. Where to Stream If you have satellite TV or cable service, you can watch all the kicking live on TV via Fox Sports in the US. It will also be available on the FoxOne streaming service for $20 per month. 2026 FIFA World Cup Here’s WIRED’s complete guide to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA has partnered with YouTube as its “preferred partner” for streaming the games. You’ll need YouTube TV’s sports plan, which is currently $55 per month. Other paid options include Fubo ($46 per month) and Hulu’s live sports option ($90 per month). Some of the games will be streamed for free on the FIFA+ streaming service. In partnership with Telemundo, Peacock will stream all of the games in Spanish. You can find all the official broadcasters on the FIFA website. Big Games The games begin on June 11 at 3 pm Eastern with Mexico playing South Africa in Mexico City. Quarterfinal matches begin on July 9. The World Cup ends with the final match on July 19 at 3 pm Eastern at the MetLife Stadium in the New York/New Jersey area. Opening Ceremony There will be three opening ceremonies, one for each country. The opening ceremony for Mexico is at the Estadio Azteca stadium in Mexico City on June 11 at 1:30 pm ET.

The opening ceremony for the US is June 12 at 7:30 pm ET at SoFi Stadium in California. In Toronto, Canada, the opening ceremony will be held at BMO Field on June 12 at 1:30 pm ET. US Games The US team’s scheduled games start on June 12 at 9 pm ET, versus Paraguay in Los Angeles. The US team plays Australia in Seattle on June 19 at 3 pm ET. The last set game is against Turkey in Los Angeles on June 25 at 10 pm ET. New Competition Given the vastly increased number of teams in this World Cup, the structure for how the competition will play out has changed. Countries are sorted into groups (labeled with letters A-L) and will play out games in the First Stage within those groups. Winners of those matches go on to duke it out in the stage called the Round of 32, then get whittled down in a Round of 16.

After that, winners move on to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and then the final game on July 19. The games in the First Stage are the only ones with set matches. After that, games in the Round of 32 and beyond will be determined by the results of prior games. You can find the full schedule, which defaults to your local time zone, on the FIFA website. We’ve listed the first games below; we’ll add the rest of the schedule once the World Cup kicks off tomorrow. First Stage Matches in this section are listed by time aired, not official match number. June 11