This year’s FIFA World Cup is set to transform Miami into one of the tournament’s biggest stages. With seven matches scheduled at the Hard Rock Stadium this summer, the city is preparing for an unprecedented surge of global visitors and local soccer fanatics.
So it’s only natural that Florida proves to be a highly soccer-obsessed state, according to a new study by SeatPick! Interest among fans in the Sunshine State “is steadily rising as excitement builds ahead of the 2026 tournament,” the study reads.
To put together its ranking, the ticket search engine analyzed Google search data such as “World Cup tickets” and “FIFA rankings” across all 50 states. By adjusting search volumes per capita, a 1-100 “Soccer Obsession Score” was created to reveal where tournament hype is highest. Overall, the study found that online interest in soccer has skyrocketed by 5000% nationwide, with nearly half of Americans reporting growing interest in the sport.
How did Florida do?
Ranking just outside the top five, the Sunshine State earned a “Soccer Obsession Score” of 66 out of 100, averaging almost 70,000 monthly World Cup-related searches. When adjusted for population, this breaks down to about 1 in every 450 Floridians actively querying tickets, fixtures and rankings as host city Miami for the summer tournament.
Well, if Floridians aren’t #1, who are? The state leading the nation with a perfect score of 100 is California, generating over 173,000 monthly searches as fans gear up for matches in Los Angeles and Santa Clara. Following California are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington and Connecticut to round out the top five. Interestingly, Connecticut is the only state not hosting any tournament matches, yet its residents are still searching at high enough rates to secure fifth place.
Here’s how the states did, according to the study:
- California
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- Washington
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Texas
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Maryland
Which 2026 World Cup games are headed to Miami?
The full tournament, hosted by a total of 16 cities, will run from June 11 to July 19. Here is the full schedule of Miami matches:
- June 15: Saudi Arabia vs. Uruguay
- June 21: Uruguay vs. Cape Verde
- June 24: Scotland vs. Brazil
- June 27: Colombia vs. Portugal
- July 3: Round of 32
- July 11: Quarter-Final
- July 18: Bronze Final
