More than 1 million fans attended the opening 16 games at the World Cup in North America, according to FIFA.
Concerns over the pricing of tickets in the run-up to the finals appeared to be borne out by swathes of empty seats at the match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara last Thursday, and Saturday’s match between Qatar and Switzerland in the Bay Area in California.
However, FIFA says 1,028,429 fans were present at the matches up to and including Monday, with the stadiums 99.34% full, according to its data.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino was pictured on his Instagram with the 1 millionth fan, Aaron Bren.
“A huge thank you to all our passionate supporters who continue to fill the stadiums – you have brought the most inclusive FIFA World Cup to life,” Infantino wrote.
Meanwhile, a fans’ group has warned of the “risk” posed by the lack of segregation at matches.
Football Supporters Europe executive director Ronan Evain told BBC Sport: “The absence of segregation is not normal for a tournament like this.
“What is worrying is that FIFA doesn’t really know who has tickets here and there… by pushing so much for people to buy tickets and resell them.
“So the possibility – or the risk – to have fans from ‘Team A’ in the middle of the crowd of ‘Team B’ is stronger than ever before.”
FIFA sources have pointed to the fact that country’s most loyal supporters are grouped together in the ring-fenced ‘participant member association’ (PMA) allocation.
FIFA later announced the four World Cup matches on Tuesday set a new record for the most attended day in the history of the tournament.
A new mark of 281,223 eclipsed the previous record of 277,070 set at the 1994 World Cup in the United States, which also featured four matches.
The combined figure came from matches between France and Senegal (80,545), Argentina and Algeria (69,045), Austria and Jordan (68,527) and Iraq and Norway (63,106).
FIFA say the current average attendance at the 2026 World Cup is 65,483 and is on track to surpass the tournament’s best cumulative record of 3.5 million in 1994.
