How to watch, listen to and follow the FIFA World Cup 2026  – everything you need to know

The Olympics may be the world’s greatest show, but the World Cup is the most-watched sporting event globally.

According to FIFA, the 2022 tournament in Qatar had around 5 billion people engaged across all platforms – so TV, streaming, social media and digital -while the final between Argentina and France had around 1.5 billion viewers.

• Watch every match wherever you are – stream live sport with a VPN

At a time when it’s tempting to say that linear TV is dying, it is still massive during the World Cup, with around 2.9 billion people still watching the tournament via a television set. With this year’s edition currently taking place in three countries – the U.S., Mexico and Canada, it would be no surprise to see those figures increase.

In this piece, we’ve covered how to watch the World Cup via TV and broadcasters’ associated official streaming services.

Obviously, there is a huge amount of content surrounding the tournament that isn’t officially sanctioned by FIFA, such as Apple’s After the Whistle podcast (now with video), Netflix’s The Rest is Football and a stack of podcasts from key channels such as the BBC’s Football Daily and The Athletic’s Totally Football Show.

How to watch in the US

In the USA, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is being shown across Fox Sports in English and Telemundo/NBCUniversal in Spanish. 

Fox has most of the matches, including most of the knockout games currently taking place and the final. Additional games will be shown on FS1. If you have local Fox/FS1 access, you should be able to watch many games for free.

Viewers can stream games in English if they subscribe on the Fox One or Fox Sports app and there will be highlights of the games, too. All games will be live and on demand. Spanish viewers can use NBC’s Peacock app for streaming.

You can also watch through other subscription platforms that have access to Fox Sports and FS1 such as YouTube TV, Sling TV, Fubo and Hulu Live TV.

How to watch in Australia

In Australia, many of the games are taking place in the morning or early afternoon. The World Cup is being shown free-to-air on SBS and streamed online via SBS On Demand (select games are live on SBS TV channels). SBS holds the exclusive Australian rights to the tournament. You can also see extra coverage – such as highlights – on the SBS Sport app.

How to watch in Canada

In Canada, the best way to watch the FIFA World Cup is through Bell Media’s coverage. All the matches are available on TSN and TSN+. Some of the biggest games – including all of Canada’s matches, the semi-final and the final – are on CTV. French-language games are available on RDS and RDS2.

You can stream every match on TSN, with select matches on the CTV App. You can also subscribe directly to TSN/TSN+ without a normal TV package.

Watching in the UK

In the UK, games are all free-to-air. As is normal for major tournaments, the rights are shared between the BBC and ITV. Both channels are broadcasting 54 matches live on TV, but audiences can follow all the remaining matches across each broadcaster’s digital platforms.

As BBC iPlayer is far superior to ITVX for ease of use, we’d suggest you start there as a one-stop shop to catch up on the action, though it’s currently unclear how long the highlights will be of each match. Highlights will also be available on YouTube at BBC Football.

BBC Radio 5 Live will also be providing as many commentaries as possible with 92 of the 104 games covered live. There are also live Scottish Gaelic commentaries of Scotland’s three group games on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Sounds.

Key dates for the FIFA World Cup 2026

The 2026 FIFA World Cup runs until 19 July 2026, with matches across the USA, Canada and Mexico. 

• Round of 32: currently taking place until 3 July 
• Round of 16: 4–7 July 
• Quarter-finals: 9–11 July 
• Semi-finals: 14–15 July 
• Final: 19 July in New Jersey

Watch every match wherever you are – stream live sport with a VPN