The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the biggest tournament in the sport’s history, and there is more to keep track of than at any World Cup before it. Forty-eight teams, three host countries, sixteen host cities, and one hundred and four matches stretched across thirty-nine days. If you are trying to figure out when your team plays, where the matches are happening, or how the new format actually works, this is the page you want to bookmark.
Below you will find everything from the start and end dates to the full group breakdown, the host city map, and a live calendar of fixtures that updates as the tournament progresses. Whether you are planning to travel, picking a fantasy bracket, or simply trying to make sense of which match is on tonight, the basics are all here.
When Does the 2026 World Cup Start and End?
The tournament kicks off on Thursday, June 11, 2026, with Mexico facing South Africa at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. That match has been scheduled to honour the 2010 opener in Johannesburg, when the same two countries played the very first match of that World Cup. The tournament runs through Sunday, July 19, 2026, when the final will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City.
Between those two dates sits thirty-nine days of football. The group stage runs from June 11 through June 24. The new round of thirty-two takes over from June 27 through June 30. The round of sixteen runs across early July, the quarter-finals follow in mid-July, the semifinals happen on July 14 and 15, and the final wraps up the tournament on July 19. If you are trying to plan around specific phases of the tournament, the calendar below will give you exact kick-off times for every match in your local time zone.
Where Is the 2026 World Cup Being Held?
For the first time, the World Cup is being co-hosted by three nations. The United States carries the bulk of the schedule, with seventy-eight of the one hundred and four total matches taking place across eleven American host cities. Mexico hosts thirteen matches across three cities, and Canada hosts thirteen matches across two cities.
The American host cities are Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle. Mexico hosts matches in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. Canada’s two host cities are Toronto, where matches are played at BMO Field, and Vancouver, where BC Place handles all Canadian fixtures including a Canada men’s national team group-stage match in front of a home crowd.
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas hosts the most matches of any single venue, with nine fixtures spread across the group stage and the deeper knockout rounds. MetLife Stadium hosts the final, while SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, and BMO Field in Toronto each carry signature opening fixtures that will draw global attention.
How the 48-Team Format Works
This is the first World Cup with forty-eight teams, expanded from the thirty-two team format that had been in place since 1998. The expansion changes both the group stage and the knockout structure, and it is worth understanding the basic shape before you try to track specific results.
The forty-eight qualified teams are divided into twelve groups of four, lettered A through L. Each team plays the other three teams in its group once, producing three group-stage matches per side. From each group, the top two finishers automatically advance to the knockout phase. The eight best third-placed sides across all twelve groups also advance, giving you twenty-four direct qualifiers and eight third-place qualifiers, for a total of thirty-two teams in the new round of thirty-two.
From the round of thirty-two onward, the tournament reverts to a familiar single-leg knockout format. Round of sixteen, quarter-finals, semifinals, final. A team that wins the trophy will have played eight matches across the thirty-nine days, the most ever required by a World Cup champion.
Mexico
South Africa
South Korea
Czech Republic
Canada
Bosnia & Herzegovina
USA
Paraguay
Qatar
Switzerland
Brazil
Morocco
Haiti
Scotland
Australia
Türkiye
Germany
Curaçao
Netherlands
Japan
The 12 Groups, Explained
The group draw was held on December 5, 2025, and the resulting groups produced both the expected and the surprising. Group A opens the tournament with Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, and Czechia. Group B is Canada’s group, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar, and Switzerland. Group D is the United States group, paired with Paraguay, Australia, and Türkiye.
Group J carries the most decorated headline of the group stage, with reigning champions Argentina drawn alongside Algeria, Austria, and Jordan. Spain, currently ranked second in the world, headline a group that scouts have flagged as one of the most testing of the field. France, the world number one, heads a different group with similarly demanding opposition. England’s group, by contrast, has been described as relatively comfortable on paper, though pre-tournament expectations are rarely a reliable guide to how a group actually plays out.
Four nations are appearing at their first ever World Cup. Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan have all earned their inaugural place in the field, with Curaçao becoming the smallest country by population to ever appear at a World Cup. The full group breakdown, including each team’s confirmed group placement, is reflected in the calendar above.
Key Dates to Mark on Your Calendar
A few dates stand out across the thirty-nine days of competition. June 11 is the opening match in Mexico City. June 12 sees both Canada and the United States play their opening fixtures. The group stage concludes on June 24, after which there is a short break before the round of thirty-two begins on June 27.
The semifinals fall on July 14 and 15, and the third-place playoff is on July 18. The final is on Sunday, July 19, with kick-off scheduled for the early evening on the East Coast. Travelling fans tend to plan around either a single phase of the tournament or a specific team’s fixture run, and the calendar above allows you to filter by either approach.
How to Follow Every Match
Broadcasting rights have been distributed across major networks in each region, with FOX and Telemundo carrying matches in the United States, CTV and TSN handling Canadian coverage, and Televisa and TUDN carrying the Mexican broadcasts. International broadcasters carry the tournament across every other major market, with streaming options available through most regional sports services.
For a single source that pulls together every fixture, every kick-off time, and every group-stage standing as the tournament progresses, the calendar above is the simplest way to keep track. It updates automatically as group results come in and as the bracket fills out through the knockout rounds, so whether you are following a single team or trying to follow the whole tournament, the schedule below stays accurate without you having to refresh anything.
The 2026 World Cup is the biggest, longest, and most geographically ambitious edition the tournament has ever produced. Bookmark this page, set your local notifications, and the rest of the tournament will come to you as it unfolds.
