The 2026 World Cup is being promoted as the largest tournament ever staged, and according to BofA, it may also mark the first edition heavily influenced by artificial intelligence. BofA calculates that direct tournament data—covering match statistics, player tracking, venue details, broadcast feeds, and operational information generated around the games—could total 90 petabytes, approximately 45 times the data volume from the 2022 event in Qatar.

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This represents a fundamental change beneath the surface. The tournament is not only growing from 32 teams to 48, but it is also transforming into a live data product, where every pass, sprint, shot, substitution, replay, crowd movement, stream, and wager contributes to a much larger system. When factoring in AI models, simulations, operations, broadcasts, streaming, betting, and social platforms, BofA estimates total data creation could reach about 2 exabytes, equivalent to roughly 45,000 years of 4K video.

In straightforward terms, the World Cup is no longer simply an event to watch. It is being measured, modeled, streamed, clipped, wagered on, and optimized in real time. Within this framework, AI is not just a tool for replays or coaching support. BofA states that teams will have access to AI models analyzing hundreds of millions of FIFA data points and more than 2,000 performance metrics in real time. Stadium digital twins and AI-operated command centers are expected to assist in managing crowd flow, security, logistics, and operations across three countries and 104 matches.

The previous version of the World Cup was a television-centered event. The new version resembles a global operating system for live sports, and that operating system comes with a revenue-generating component. BofA reports that FIFA’s 2023-26 revenue budget is projected at $11 billion, up from $7.6 billion in the 2019-22 cycle. The largest revenue sources are TV broadcasting, hospitality and ticket sales, and marketing rights—all areas that gain from more matches, more viewers, more screens, and more methods to turn attention into income.

This real-time layer is also emerging outside FIFA’s own revenue streams. BofA references Bookies.com estimates that US World Cup betting and prediction market trading could increase to $5.9 billion in 2026 from $1.8 billion during the Qatar 2022 tournament, with $2.7 billion expected from prediction markets. This makes the World Cup more than a tournament people watch; it is becoming an event that people stream, model, bet on, and price in real time.

Yet a larger business does not automatically translate into a clearer economic benefit for the host locations. BofA cites estimates that the 2026 World Cup could add roughly $41 billion to global GDP, including $17 billion in the US, while supporting nearly 824,000 jobs worldwide. These are substantial figures, but they are also the type of numbers that make economists cautious about mega-events, where spending can be shifted rather than created and public costs may fall on host cities.

Source: IndexBox Market Intelligence Platform