For months, the prevailing advice around the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been the same: Book now or prepare to pay a fortune later.
But with less than a month until kickoff, the sellout scenario may not be unfolding quite as expected.
Despite projections that the tournament would trigger massive hotel shortages and eye-popping ticket prices across North America, bookings in several host cities are softer than anticipated. Tickets also remain available for many matches in host cities such as Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle, through FIFA’s official platform, while resale prices for some games have already started to decline.
For flexible travelers, there may be a late-booking window available for both hotels and game tickets.
“While early forecasts often assume extreme price spikes and rapid sell-outs, the reality is usually more nuanced and highly dependent on timing, traveler profiles, and booking behavior,” says Marcin Starkowski, a PR manager at eSky Group, an online travel agency.
The 2026 tournament—which will span the United States, Canada, and Mexico—was always expected to reshape summer travel across the continent. With 48 teams, 104 matches, and millions of projected visitors, cities including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Mexico City have spent years preparing for a surge of international visitors.
Why demand may be softer than expected
Economists who study mega-events say expectations around demand are often inflated early on.
“First, the initial predictions were always highly optimistic,” says Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, specializing in the economic impact of sports. “Second, especially in a World Cup that has been expanded to 48 teams (from 32 teams in previous years), not every game is a Germany-Spain or France-Norway or Argentina-England.”
Instead, Matheson notes, the expanded format creates far more lower-profile matchups with less demand. “You are going to have a lot of Algeria versus Austria, games that have a more limited appeal and are unlikely to attract tens of thousands of international or domestic travelers,” he says.
An April survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association reported that many hotels in U.S. host cities were seeing lower-than-expected booking levels ahead of the tournament. Analysts say part of that softness reflects changing traveler behavior. The report noted that 70 percent of responding hotels in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle reported that the booking pace was below expectations, with more than 60 percent saying the same in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York.
“Many travelers are no longer rushing to lock in all components of a trip at once,” says Starkowski. “Instead, they are waiting for ticket confirmations and clearer visibility on match schedules before finalizing accommodation and flights.”
That wait-and-see approach may be especially relevant because World Cup tickets are not released all at once. FIFA has said it plans to continue releasing inventory throughout the tournament, including closer to individual match dates. Returned hospitality allocations, sponsor inventory, and official resale tickets can all reenter the market over time.
According to resale experts, prices are already moving.
“Ticket prices have dropped significantly over the past 30 days—on average, more than 20 percent across all the group stage games,” says Keith Pagello, founder of TicketData and an expert on ticket resale in the U.S. “That being said, prices are still very high, and in the past week or so, the declines have plateaued, at least for now.”
Pagello says one of the biggest remaining variables is how much ticket inventory FIFA has yet to release. “Of all the factors, this will have the biggest impact on whether prices go up or down as we enter these final weeks before the games,” he says.
While high-profile games—including knockout rounds and matches involving the U.S. men’s national team—are still expected to command steep prices, analysts say group-stage matches and games in smaller host cities, like Kansas City and Boston, could become increasingly attainable as kickoff approaches.
“It is possible [to get tickets] as long as fans are not picky about the event,” says Matheson. “Don’t expect to get a cheap ticket to France versus Norway featuring Kylian Mbappé against Erling Haaland, perhaps the two best players on the planet. But tickets to Austria versus Algeria or Democratic Republic of the Congo versus Uzbekistan are likely to be affordable.”
What travelers should book now—and what can wait
Flights, meanwhile, remain one of the biggest wildcard expenses. The latest Consumer Price Index report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that cash airfares are up 20.7 percent year over year as of May 2026.
According to airfare monitoring platform Going, current average round-trip economy fares from within the U.S. to some major host cities remain elevated but not necessarily extreme by peak-summer standards. Recent searches showed average fares around $350 to New York City–area airports and roughly $400 to Los Angeles and Mexico City for four- to five-day itineraries around major matches, though prices varied sharply depending on airport choice and travel dates.
But award flights booked with points haven’t risen at the same pace, which could become particularly useful to travelers, says Jimmy Yoon, head of points intelligence at point.me, an award search and loyalty travel platform.
“If you are looking at booking award flights, for airline partners that use fixed redemption rates, prices are ‘set’ depending on the distance of the flight and/or region you’re traveling between,” says Yoon. “This completely insulates your points from cash fare inflation.”
Yoon says that dynamic is creating unusually strong redemption opportunities for travelers still hoping to attend matches. “If you’re looking at traveling to a different city to see a World Cup match, now is a great time to use your points,” he says, noting that travelers can often find significantly better value by transferring points to airline loyalty programs than by booking flights directly through a credit card portal.
He points to one example where travelers could fly first class from New York to Los Angeles for the U.S. versus Paraguay match on June 12 for 22,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles one-way—a ticket that would otherwise cost more than $1,200 in cash.
The bigger financial pressure point may ultimately be hotels. Late June and early July are within the peak summer travel season, and the tournament will overlap with celebrations surrounding the 250th anniversary of the United States. Going estimates that hotel rooms that might normally cost about $200 per night could easily climb above $600 during the tournament in some host cities.
Increasingly, though, some travelers may not even need a stadium ticket to justify the trip.
“Another key factor shaping demand is that the World Cup experience extends far beyond stages,” Starkowski says. “Fan zones, public screenings, city festivals, and informal watch parties across host cities are becoming a major part of the attraction.”
For travelers who assume they’ve already missed their chance to attend, Matheson offers simple advice: “Keep looking at ticket resale sites. There’s no reason to believe that every game will remain unaffordable.”
