The 2026 World Cup is over. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time on July 19th to win the tournament, and the last ticket has been scanned. So now that the dust has settled, it's a good time to look back at what fans actually paid to get into these games. Here's what happened.

In the tournament's final weeks, the average cheapest ticket price for World Cup games had jumped by about 68% over a 30-day span — roughly $400 more than a month earlier. That's a big jump. But in the final week before the championship, prices eased back down about 8%, or roughly $85.

Think of it like a balloon that got blown up fast and then leaked a little air right before the end. Prices never came close to fully deflating — the late dip only gave back about a fifth of what had been gained over the prior month. Fans hoping for a late discount on Final tickets mostly didn't get one. While it often pays to wait, it didn’t work out that way this time.