Image credit: Getty Images
When the circus rolls into North America for the 2026 Fifa World Cup, we won’t just be seeing the biggest sporting event in history. We’re going to see a demonstration of how football is consumed and experienced by youth culture at the largest scale possible.
We know this partly because we’ve been following our own fans’ media consumption habits, whether that’s been across Goal, Mundial, or YouTube-first shows like Front Three and the Beast Mode On Podcast. But we’ve also recently surveyed around 11,000 fans worldwide to better understand their wider media consumption and expectations for this summer’s tournament.
The death of the passive viewer
Gen Alpha, and Gen Z audiences don’t watch football like my family and I did when lapping up the sun-scorched drama of an England-less USA ‘94. In 2026, young fans consume the aura of the game, not just the linear broadcast and the formulaic analysis. They’ll consume this iconic footballing moment through the lens of the ‘vibes economy’ that they inhabit.
The Kings League doesn’t have a massive youth audience because of the quality of the football; rather, it’s the chaos it injects, the interactivity, and creator-led commentary that young fans crave and which we expect to dominate consumption this summer.
Our research shows that what younger audiences want to see most from brands around the World Cup is entertainment, followed by authenticity – two reasons why we see this demographic flock to creator-led content.
It also explains why 61 per cent say they’d feel positive about brands partnering with their favourite creators compared to only 48 per cent who said the same about brands with official Fifa partnerships. This is also why we’ve invested heavily in our own creator-led brands such as Goal’s Front Three in the UK, Yalla Goal across MENA and 1vs1 in Italy.
This won’t be the first Creator World Cup; Qatar can have that title, with its compact footprint perfectly suited to cost-conscious independent creators, unlike Russia ever could. But four years on, fans are expecting it, and so should brands.
Second, third and fourth screening and constant partial togetherness
Nearly everyone (93 per cent) will be second-screening during the World Cup, including 97 per cent of young fans.
We didn’t see a huge difference in the core activities they’ll be doing during the games and no single demographic will get all their World Cup insight and entertainment from a single platform. Rather, we see all groups moving between websites and apps, messaging groups, creator-led content, podcasts, social platforms and others – sharing the iconic moments of this World Cup through a state of constant partial togetherness.
This wide variety of content formats, platforms, and mediums means that even for fans watching games live, the idea of second-screening has changed, and the TV may, for some, actually be the second screen, rather than a mobile device. For some, it may even be relegated to the third or fourth screen.
While there’s not a huge variation across age groups for most phone-based activities (checking stats, using social media, etc.), young fans are considerably more likely to play video games (29 per cent for under 17s and 16 per cent for 28 to 44) and view watch watchalongs (29 per cent for under 17s compared to 16 per cent for 28 to 44) – something our own Goal’s Front Three creators will be doing during the biggest games.
The battle for attention over breakfast
There will be 13 different kick-off times during the World Cup. Some of these work well for fans in the UK, providing primetime viewing between 5pm to 10pm, but many matches will kick off way past young fans’ bedtimes.
Our research showed that young fans were the group least keen to watch games between 10pm and 5am. If you’ve got school the next day then staying up until nearly 4am to watch Brazil vs Haiti is unlikely to be on the cards.
Instead, the battle for attention will shift to breakfast time. Throughout much of the tournament, prime real estate will shift from the live broadcast to snackable, high-energy content that serves as the cultural download for young and older fans waking up to find out what happened while they slept.
We’ll all be behaving like UK-based NBA fans who have long lived in a highlights, creator and culture-led world, waking up daily to an algorithm flooded with 15-second clips of poster dunks, tunnel fits, and on-court drama.
Think beyond England
Our research shows that Gen Z and Gen A will, on average, follow four teams during the tournament. For some, this is driven by mixed family heritage, but for others, it’s symbolic of a generation in which connection to players and national teams can be as much driven by EA FC Ultimate Team, TikTok or club allegiances as by what their passport says – this is a generation for whom football has no borders.
Of course, for the vast majority, home nation support is paramount, but as we can see, there’s going to be a huge appetite for other nations and narratives. If there’s one thing the recent Winter Olympics taught us, narratives (and drones) matter.
Younger fans will be following their favourite players during this summer’s World Cup – not just their own national team (Image credit: Getty Images)
Winning the World Cup in the chat
Navigating the unique challenges of this summer’s tournament, which lands in the fragmented, creator-led ecosystem that we all inhabit now, and against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, will require a marketing and content strategy designed for native fluency.
To seamlessly weave your brand into the digital fabric of modern fandom requires an understanding of how emerging generations of fans consume the game and the noise around it.
Tapping into the cultural crossover of the various subcultures of fandom, with gaming, fashion, music, and more across social communities, can drive real relevance and impact.
Gen Alpha expects to be active participants in everything they do and authentic, entertaining creator voices are what matter most.
For brands, the 2026 World Cup won’t be won on television. It’s going to be won in the comments section, on live streams, in group chats, and in the digital communities where Gen Z and Alpha actually live.
As platforms multiply, audiences fragment and media rights deals plateau, it’s time to understand what’s really going on in sports media. Join us at SportsPro London this April to learn more.