Sports

FIFA Fan Festival for World Cup draws highest attendance since 2006

More than 500,000 fans took part in the event at Centennial Olympic Park.
Soccer fans gather to watch a match between Brazil and Scotland at the FIFA Fan Festival in Centennial Olympic Park on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
Soccer fans gather to watch a match between Brazil and Scotland at the FIFA Fan Festival in Centennial Olympic Park on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Atlanta. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
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1 hour ago

A record-breaking World Cup also drew its best FIFA Fan Festival attendance since Germany hosted in 2006.

The governing body announced Friday that more than 9 million people attended fan festival sites in 13 host cities during the 39-day tournament across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

The fan festival “showed the extraordinary power of football to unite and inspire fans from all over the world, creating an unforgettable atmosphere that was accessible to all,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a news release.

Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park was transformed into a soccer haven for fans around the globe, welcoming more than 500,000 guests and averaging more than 27,000 per day. The park was open for 19 days during the tournament, including the semifinal matchup between England and Argentina in Atlanta on July 15.

Atlanta’s fan festival program “presented one of the most diverse entertainment programmes across the FIFA Fan Festival network,” FIFA said in the release. It hosted a wide variety of artists, including Ludacris, Killer Mike, CeeLo Green and Summer Walker.

Atlanta hosted eight World Cup matches, with Mercedes-Benz Stadium (referred to as Atlanta Stadium during the tournament) drawing 544,516 fans. Six matches were at capacity.