Thursday’s World Cup match between Ecuador and Germany featured an additional highlight pertaining to the 2026 World Cup as a whole.
The Group E match played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was played before 80,663 spectators. That crowd total boosted the total attendance of the 2026 World Cup matches to 3,605,357, setting a new all-time record, according to FIFA.
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The previous attendance record of 3,587,538 was also set in the United States during the 1994 World Cup. But with the 2026 tournament not yet in the Round of 32, the new record will continue to increase and set a figure that might never again be reached. To this point, the 2026 tournament includes the highest stadium-occupancy rate at 99.7%
Thursday’s matches also set a single-day attendance record with 384,206 fans watching across venues in Philadelphia; Kansas City, Missouri.; Arlington, Texas; Santa Clara, California; and Inglewood, California.
The record total does come with at least one caveat: With the larger, 48-team field in the 2026 World Cup, 56 games have been played thus far. In 1994, the field was comprised of 24 teams and played 52 games in total. The number of teams playing in the World Cup increased to 32 teams in 1998, resulting in 64 games being played overall.
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Additionally, the size of the stadiums in the U.S. where matches are being played includes a higher seating capacity than venues in previous countries that have hosted the World Cup.
For instance, though Lusail Stadium in Qatar had a listed seating capacity of 88,000 and packed in 88,966 spectators for the 2022 World Cup final, six of the eight venues for the tournament had capacities of 40,000.
By comparison, only two of the 16 stadiums throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico have capacities around 40,000: BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario, and Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Mexico.
However, only MetLife Stadium has a seating capacity of 80,000 among the U.S. venues.
