World Cup Passion Index 2026

By Jim Tomlin

May 1st, 2026 5:34 PM EDT

Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to play in his sixth World Cup this summer at age 41. (Yukihito Taguchi-Imagn Images)

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The World Cup is coming to North America in 2026 and soccer fans all over the world are eagerly anticipating the planet’s biggest sporting event, both for watching and wagering at sports betting sites.

But which countries have registered the most excitement? Bookies.com set out to discover the answer. Here is an interactive World Cup Passion Index graphic, where we rank the 48 participating nations. We’ll explain the methodology below.

How We Arrived At These Numbers

We used a complex blend of metrics to assemble these World Cup Passion Index rankings. Three pillars combine to produce each nation's Passion Score (0–100):

• Pillar 1: Home Attendance Fill Rate (40%). This means the average home crowd as a percentage of stadium capacity across competitive home matches across World Cup Qualifying matches. For the three host nations (USA, Canada and Mexico) we used CONCACAF Nations League 2022–23 and 2023–24 home matches with per-venue capacity. The USA was at 87.0%, Mexico 80.8% and Canada 51.4%
• Pillar 2: Social Following Per Capita (30%). We sourced official national team Instagram followers divided by national population (UN 2024 estimates). All 48 accounts verified and navigated directly in April 2026.
• Pillar 3: 2022 World Cup Peak Viewership (30%). This means the peak TV/streaming audience as a percentage of national population during the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Sources: FIFA official audience reports, beIN Sports MENA data, broadcast partner press releases.

All pillars normalized to 0–100 scale (min-max normalization). Final score = P1×0.40 + P2×0.30 + P3×0.30.

See our reviews of soccer betting sites as the big event gets closer.

Most Passionate World Cup 2026 Nations, Ranked

Why does Portugal rank at the top of our World Cup Passion Index list? It’s largely thanks to social media saturation, driven by one aging superstar.

Portugal was by far No. 1 in social media impact per capita globally. The national team’s 21.7 million followers on Instagram are more than double the nation’s 10.5 million population.

Thank Cristiano Ronaldo for that. At 41, Ronaldo is expected to break a men’s World Cup record with his sixth tournament appearance, along with his former La Liga rival (more on him later). Though he has played his domestic soccer since 2023 in Saudi Arabia, far from the bright lights of top-rank European leagues, Ronaldo’s personal Instagram account has 673 million followers.

Second on our list is Morocco, which in 2022 became the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals. Morocco had a 99% viewership for that World Cup, the highest number on our list. That, combined with a 94% attendance figure, helped the North African nation to score high in our metrics.

In third place is defending World Cup champion Argentina, led by legendary striker Lionel Messi. He, alongside Ronaldo, is also expected to play in a men’s record sixth World Cup this summer. At Caesars Sportsbook, Argentina has +850 odds, fourth on the board, to repeat as champions.

How Do the Three World Cup 2026 Hosts Rank?

This is the first World Cup with three nations co-hosting.

Mexico is the only one in the top half of our list, ranking eighth. The nation had a 68% viewership for the 2022 World Cup, helping to boost El Tri into the top 10 in our World Cup passion index.

The United States ranked lowest for average viewership during the last World Cup at 8%. That and its low social media imprint knock the USA down on our list despite a high 87% attendance home figure from non-World Cup events in recent years. At FanDuel Sportsbook, the USMNT has +105 odds to win Group D ahead of Turkey, Paraguay and Australia.

Canada, much more known for hockey than soccer, is in the bottom six on our list at No. 42. However, the Canadians head into this World Cup with optimism because they have several good young players and their form in recent years in CONCACAF competitions has been strong.

Why Several Soccer Powers Rank Low

How is it that world powers and former World Cup champions such as England (No. 23), Brazil (No. 25), Spain (No. 34), France (No. 36) and Germany (No. 44) rank so low?

Partly, their large populations work against them. For instance, none of those counties come anywhere near Argentina’s 0.31 social media score, nor do they approach the defending champion’s 81% viewership saturation from the most recent World Cup.

Germany’s case is perhaps the most interesting. The country had a feel-good run to the semifinals as World Cup hosts in 2006, and a championship followed in 2014 in Brazil. However, die Mannschaft has been eliminated in the group stages of the past two World Cups, deflating fan enthusiasm. The nation’s measured 11% viewership number from four years ago is barely ahead of Canada (10%).

At DraftKings Sportsbook, Germany has +1400 odds to win World Cup 2026, seventh on the operator’s board.

How The Final Nation Ranks

The most recent teams to qualify for the 2026 World Cup came through either European playoffs or inter-continental eliminators in late March. The nation that booked the very last spot was Iraq, which ousted Bolivia with a 2-1 victory in Mexico, the site of all the inter-continental playoffs.

Iraq, the ninth Asian nation in this year’s tournament, slots in at a respectable No. 20 on our list despite a social media number (0.01x) that ranks alongside the USA and some others among the lowest. Their viewership from 2022 was at 50% in a nation with little infrastructure or stability.

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