The 2026 FIFA World Cup will not only be the biggest tournament in football history with 48 teams and 104 matches, it will also mark a major shift in how fans consume the sport.

As FIFA seeks to attract younger audiences, the governing body has signed a record number of digital-focused broadcast deals, bringing influencers, creators, YouTube and TikTok into the World Cup ecosystem. The strategy is aimed at making the tournament more interactive and accessible for a generation that increasingly consumes content online rather than through traditional television.

Brazil's Influencer-Led Revolution

Brazil is at the forefront of FIFA's digital experiment. Streaming platform CazeTV, fronted by popular influencer Casimiro Miguel, has secured rights to all 104 World Cup matches in Brazil, making it the only platform in the country to offer complete coverage of the tournament.

The partnership builds on the success of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, when Casimiro's channel streamed 22 matches and attracted millions of younger viewers through a more informal presentation style and creator-driven commentary.

“FIFA is always looking at innovative ways about how to enhance the broadcast coverage of our flagship competitions and the deal with CazeTV is an example of such, which will ensure football fans in Brazil will be able to watch all 104 games, while also helping to reach new audiences and demographics,” FIFA told The Associated Press.

LiveMode, the company behind CazeTV, recently expanded internationally and announced that Cristiano Ronaldo has become one of its shareholders. Its Portuguese channel will broadcast one World Cup match per day, including all Portugal fixtures and the final.

“There is an audience that connects with digital first, and digital allows us to bring this new audience to follow major sporting events,” LiveMode co-founder Sergio Lopes said.

“Generally, this audience is younger and doesn’t just want to watch a match. They want to participate in the conversation, interact in real time, and feel like they are part of a community.”

YouTube and TikTok Enter the World Cup

For the first time, FIFA has partnered directly with YouTube and TikTok to expand digital engagement around the tournament.

TikTok has been named FIFA's preferred social-media video platform for the World Cup, while rights-holding broadcasters will be allowed to livestream portions of matches on both TikTok and YouTube. Under FIFA's agreement with YouTube, broadcasters can stream the opening 10 minutes of games on the platform.

“YouTube is where global sports fans tune in before, during, and after the game. That is what makes our preferred partnership with FIFA for World Cup 2026 so unique,” said Angela Courtin, YouTube's Vice President of Entertainment and Sports Marketing.

“Between the incredible reach of our creator cohort and providing FIFA’s media partners with a pathway to upload more premium content to their YouTube channels, plus our live YouTube FIFA Creator Cup in New York City this July, we are ushering in the next generation of soccer fans for years to come.”

FIFA believes the new partnerships will help the tournament set new records for digital viewership. During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA recorded five billion engagements globally, with digital and streaming platforms accounting for 2.7 billion of those interactions.

“The World Cup continues to be the greatest sporting spectacle on the planet, but the way to experience it is also becoming more social, more participatory, more accessible, and more connected to the digital habits of each generation,” Lopes added.