Soccer Football – FIFA World Cup 2026 – Round of 32 – United States v Bosnia and Herzegovina – San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, Santa Clara, California, U.S. – July 1, 2026 U.S. fans celebrate after the match IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Darren Yamashita
With the 2026 FIFA World Cup taking over North America, the retail sector has experienced significant growth in jersey and other merchandise sales.
Soccer.com, an online retailer that has been selling jerseys, cleats, and accessories since 1984, has tracked many of the trends associated with sales of its products, and business is booming.
“We have been tracking year after year sales growth, which in our businesses has been 1400% gross every year during the run up and through the [World Cup],” director of consumer merchandising Billy Lalor told amNewYork.
Soccer.com has closely followed the market at every World Cup since the modern era began. But this year’s tournament, spanning the United States, Canada, and Mexico, has increased the number of consumers purchasing items from regional markets.
Lalor added that the time zones and the tournament being played in the summer have contributed to these trends being vastly different from the 2022 World Cup, which was played in Qatar during November and December. At that point in the year, the tournament shared the spotlight with the NFL and NBA seasons.
“I’d say that the lift has been even more than we and the market anticipated. We saw a big peak coming, but the peak exceeded our expectations by even 15 to 20%,” Lalor said. “We’ve been through many World Cups at Soccer.com, so we had a lot of history to go on, and we did build in significantly more business because this is our home market. We thought people would be more engaged than ever, and the whole marketplace was a little underplayed for the event, but it’s fantastic to have almost 100% full price sell out in our business rather than over planning.”
United States men’s national team (USMNT) superstar Christian Pulisic has been at the top of the regional sales chart next to Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Key moments, such as the American team advancing to the Round of 16 and Messi scoring a hat trick in the group stage against Algeria, have contributed to increased jersey sales.
“If a team or player has a big performance, you’ll see a spike during and after that performance for the next 24 hours. It’s sustained for the next few days, and you get five or 10 times the amount of sales,” Lalor continued.
Most notably, sales for USMNT have improved since the previous World Cup, driven by the kits’ design and fans’ more favorable view of the team. For this reason, the national squad’s jerseys remained sold out even after Belgium solemnly defeated them in the Round of 16.
“The entire marketplace is completely sold out of jerseys for the most part, except for a couple of small sizes,” Lalor concluded.
For more on the World Cup, visit AMNY.com
