With an anticipated viewership of more than 1.5 billion people, the 2026 World Cup is expected to represent the most-watched live event in history. For advertisers, that creates an obvious opportunity to reach soccer fans around matches, highlights, team coverage and tournament content.
But the bigger opportunity is less obvious.
Sports fandom does not live only inside sports media. Today’s fans move across mobile apps, streaming platforms, shopping environments, travel planning, social gatherings, gaming and real-world experiences. Major events like the World Cup create viewing moments, yes. But they also create intent signals across the entire consumer journey.
The challenge for marketers is that passion does not always reveal itself through content consumption. A fan planning a trip to a host city, purchasing team merchandise or organizing a watch party may be exhibiting stronger intent than someone casually watching highlights. Understanding these behaviors allows brands to reach audiences based on real-world actions rather than relying solely on the content they happen to consume in a given moment.
Brands need to broaden their approach to sports audiences, including those who tune into mega-events like the World Cup. The real opportunity lies beyond the match itself. It is about identifying the behaviors, contexts and purchase signals that sports fans generate before, during and after the event.
World Cup audience insights
World Cup interest is strongly connected to travel intent.
Among soccer fans, 65.7% show travel intent for the 2026 World Cup, representing roughly 40 million people, according to Start.io research. That is one of the clearest signs that the World Cup audience extends well beyond passive viewership. This creates opportunity for travel brands, airlines, hotels, rideshare companies, payment providers, local experiences, tourism boards and retailers serving people preparing for trips or major events.
It’s important to note, however, that interest in the World Cup is reflected not just in media consumption but in the behaviors that surround participation in the event. Fans are more likely to engage in travel planning, streaming-related activities, retail purchases and social-gathering preparation, creating a broader set of signals that marketers can use to understand audience intent beyond sports content alone.
For marketers, that means a World Cup audience strategy should not be confined to match broadcasts or sports media; it should include the behaviors that surround the event: what fans buy, where they gather, what they watch before and after matches and how they prepare for shared viewing moments.
Streaming behavior also reveals useful planning signals. Among this soccer audience, Hulu and Disney+, for example, over-index ahead of Netflix and Prime, likely reflecting the influence of ESPN-connected viewing behavior. This is a reminder that sports affinity can shape broader entertainment behavior in ways that are not always obvious from content categories alone.
Major sports events concentrate attention, but the brands that benefit most are those that understand the full range of fan behavior around them. Here’s a broader view of how brands can activate around sports fandoms:
- First, marketers should start with signal quality. Sports targeting is stronger when it is built from real behavioral indicators, not broad assumptions about who fans are or where they spend time.
Marketers should prioritize audience signals that reveal intent and context, including travel planning, streaming behavior, shopping activity, gaming preferences and event-hosting patterns.
- Second, brands should segment by context. A traveling fan, a streaming fan, a party host, a shopper and a casual viewer might all belong to the same broad sports audience, but they represent very different opportunities.
Each context should inform different messaging, timing and channel decisions.
- Third, advertisers should activate beyond sports media. Sports content is an important part of the plan, but it should not be the entire plan. Mobile, CTV, OTT, commerce, retail and open web environments can all play meaningful roles when connected through strong audience intelligence.
This broader approach gives marketers more ways to reach fans before, during and after moments of peak attention.
- Finally, marketers should refresh their assumptions continuously. Sports audiences are dynamic and their behaviors shift during the lead-up, live event window and post-event period.
Sports marketing planning should be treated as an active, evolving process rather than a one-time media buy.
The 2026 World Cup proves that sports marketing can no longer live in a silo.
To capture how fans travel, shop and gather, brands need real-world clarity. Start.io’s Audiences Hub bridges this gap, letting marketers instantly activate precise mobile-first segments across leading DSPs. By transforming passive viewership into a map of consumer intent, Start.io enables media spend to drive engagement, not just impressions.
For more articles featuring Gil Dudkiewicz, click here.
