World Cup 2026: why the economic impact will be staggering

MetLife Stadium in New Jersey ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Photo: Dustin Satloff/Getty Images.

World Cup fever is building on Wall Street after a leading bank analysed the huge economic footprint of the “most connected and data-intensive” sporting event ever staged.

Bank of America reckons 75% of the globe will engage with this summer’s tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico, leading to a boost of up to $41 billion (£30 billion) to GDP and supporting 800,000 jobs.

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It adds that it will be a World Cup fully built for a digital age as six billion fans move from being passive viewers into real-time participants across multiple screens and platforms. It will also be a global showcase of artificial intelligence (AI).

BofA predicts that this year’s final match is set to consume up to 7% of global internet traffic, as viewing shifts decisively from linear TV to streaming, mobile and social platforms.

This compares with 2022’s 4-5% when a single minute of play attracted 1.5 billion viewers.

In addition, the tournament marks the first AI World Cup as artificial intelligence moves from being a support tool to the control system.

More than 90 petabytes (90 million gigabytes) of direct tournament data are expected to be generated, rising to more than two exabytes (2,000 petabytes) once AI, simulations, streaming, and social platforms are included.

AI will analyse thousands of performance metrics in real time, power digital replicas of stadiums and orchestrate operations across three countries.

BofA said: “Every team will use AI models, analysing hundreds of millions of data points and 2,000+ performance metrics in real time.

“Digital twins of 16 stadiums, AI-run command centres across three countries, and 35-50 million viewers per match push AI into a central operational role for the entire event.”

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The tournament’s expanded format spans 48 countries, which BofA points out represents 27% of the world’s population and 62% of global GDP. The US is the largest at over 340 million people, the smallest being Curaçao at just over 185,000.

The event will underscore how global sports increasingly intersect with economic growth, technology and finance. For the US alone, the estimated impacts of the World Cup are $30.5 billion in output, $17.2 billion in GDP and about 185,000 jobs.

BofA adds that the global sports industry generated $2.3 trillion of revenue in 2025, making it the world’s 10th largest economy, and is on track to reach $3.7 trillion by 2030.

Sectors best positioned to benefit from World Cup-driven demand include travel and lodging, beverages, sportswear, restaurants, broadcasting, social media and online betting.

North America-focused Diageo (LSE:DGE), InterContinental Hotels Group (LSE:IHG) and the gaming firms Flutter Entertainment (LSE:FLTR) and Entain (LSE:ENT) are among the potential UK-listed beneficiaries, although BofA makes no mention of individual companies in its report.

TV, mobile and electricals retailer Currys (LSE:CURY) and the pub chains Mitchells & Butlers (LSE:MAB) and Marston's (LSE:MARS) will also be eyeing a boost from a summer of World Cup-linked demand.

In terms of the tournament winner, respondents to a Bank of America survey reckon that France will lift the trophy with Kylian Mbappé as top scorer. Microsoft Copilot concurs on France, but adds Spain has equal probability to lift the trophy.