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The 2026 World Cup ended on July 19 after 39 days and 104 matches, the most of any World Cup in history. The field had grown to 48 teams, 16 more than in previous tournaments, sending nations that had never before qualified onto the sport’s biggest stage. For some of those countries, the exposure translated directly into a new kind of following.
Much of that attention traced back to individual players. Norway gained the most Instagram followers of any country during the tournament, according to data from Sportico, and nearly all of it came from one player.
Erling Haaland gained 32.1 million followers. He helped Norway reach the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in the country’s history and finished the tournament with seven goals. Searches for Haaland’s name also rose 900 percent worldwide compared with the same period last year, according to Google Trends data.
Cape Verde ranked second. Goalkeeper Vozinha gained 29.4 million followers after a man-of-the-match performance in a scoreless draw with Spain in the group stage. Vozinha had about 30,000 followers before the tournament began.
The attention on Cape Verde extended beyond social media. U.S. Google searches for “Cabo Verde vacation” rose more than 5,000 percent compared with the previous year, according to the travel publication Skift. Expedia recorded an increase of more than 800 percent in searches from U.S. users during the same period, and the travel company TUI reported searches for the country doubling.
Portugal and Spain followed, powered by two of the tournament’s biggest stars. Cristiano Ronaldo gained 11.4 million followers, while Lamine Yamal gained 11 million.
Brazil’s growth came from two players. Neymar gained 7.7 million followers and Endrick gained 5.6 million, for a combined 13.3 million.
Argentina’s total was driven by Lionel Messi, who added 7.5 million followers. That was a significant increase even for Messi, who already had more than 500 million followers before the tournament began.
Some of the tournament’s biggest social media breakthroughs came from players who were largely unknown outside their home countries.
New Zealand defender Tim Payne had about 4,700 Instagram followers before the tournament. By the end, he had 5.8 million. His sudden rise began after Argentine social media influencer Valen Scarsini identified him as the least-known player heading into the World Cup.
New Zealand entered the tournament ranked 75th in the world, the lowest-ranked team in the field.
Mexico’s 17-year-old Gilberto Mora gained 6.6 million followers, while France’s Michael Olise gained 5.7 million.
The United States saw a smaller but notable gain of its own. Forward Folarin Balogun’s following more than doubled during the tournament, growing from 335,106 to 903,577. Balogun led the United States in goals before he was sent off in the round of 32 against Bosnia and Herzegovina for stepping on the ankle of defender Tarik Muharemović. FIFA overturned the suspension days later, allowing him to play in the Americans’ round of 16 match against Belgium.
A Ratings Success
The follower gains reflected a tournament that also broke television ratings records around the world.
Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina in the final drew the country’s largest television audience ever recorded. The match was also the second-most-watched television event in Spanish history, behind the penalty shootout in Spain’s Euro 2012 semifinal against Portugal.
The final averaged 15.7 million viewers and a 87.1 percent audience share across Spanish broadcasters RTVE, 3Cat and La 2, as well as streaming service DAZN, according to Variety.
Across Europe, audiences often rose and fell with the fortunes of the countries still in the tournament.
France’s semifinal loss to Spain drew the country’s biggest television audience of the year, with 20.2 million viewers and a 73 percent share on M6, Variety reported, citing Mediametrie. By the final, with France eliminated, the audience had fallen to 12.24 million viewers and a 59.2 percent share, a drop of roughly 8 million viewers.
British audiences proved more resilient. England’s semifinal loss to Argentina averaged 22.1 million viewers and peaked at 24 million on BBC One, making it the country’s biggest television broadcast of the year to that point. Even after England was eliminated, the final still drew 13.9 million viewers on BBC One and iPlayer, while ITV peaked at 3.4 million.
The tournament was also a ratings success in the United States.
The final drew 22.6 million viewers across Telemundo and Peacock, according to preliminary Nielsen figures, putting it on track to become the most-watched World Cup final in Spanish-language media history. Earlier in the tournament, the United States’ 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 became the most-watched English-language soccer telecast in U.S. history, drawing a final Nielsen average of 26.4 million viewers on Fox.
Fox paid $485 million for the U.S. broadcast rights to the tournament. Together with Telemundo, the networks are expected to bring in roughly $850 million in advertising revenue, according to Variety, citing SportsPro.
The numbers showed the tournament’s reach was not limited to the countries still competing. Even after national teams were eliminated, audiences continued to watch, while broadcasters and advertisers benefited from a World Cup that reached viewers across languages, markets and platforms.
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