Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Signage for “Reliant Stadium” goes up on NRG Stadium following the FIFA World Cup on July 22, 2026.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is over, and NRG Stadium is undergoing its makeover to again become “Reliant Stadium” in the coming weeks. Still, more than 1 million people get to say they experienced the World Cup in some form or fashion in Houston, according to the city’s World Cup host committee.
An estimated 1,086,499 people either attended a match, visited Houston’s FIFA Fan Festival, walked in a fan march or had some other World Cup-related experience in Houston throughout the international soccer tournament, which spanned from June 11-July 19. That includes 480,186 fans who attended the city’s seven World Cup matches at NRG Stadium.
People from all 50 states and more than 200 countries attended those matches, according to figures released by the host committee on Wednesday. The vast majority of those ticketholders – 81% – were from outside the Houston area, and nearly half of them were from other countries. Mexico and Canada were the top two countries for international ticketholders, with Germany, Brazil, and Portugal rounding out the top five. Brazil, Canada, Germany and Portugal played a combined five matches in Houston.
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“Houston delivered one of the tournament’s most exciting match slates, leading all host cities with 27 goals scored across the seven matches,” Chris Canetti, president of the World Cup host committee, said in a news conference on Wednesday. “And when you come to soccer games, you want to see goals scored.”
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While much of the World Cup activity was around NRG Park, Houston’s fan festival was also seen by the host committee as a success. Nearly 1 million visitors came to the East Downtown neighborhood during the tournament, including 551,313 visitors who attended the fan festival and the Houston Dynamo Soccer Celebration.
Surrounding fan fest, visitor traffic to the EaDo neighborhood increased by more than 225% year over year since 2025. According to the host committee, every bar, restaurant and bakery surrounding fan fest saw a year-over-year traffic growth, ranging from 33% to 1,600%.
“Basically, they walk into this parking lot that’s essentially dilapidated — it’s a gravel pit with stuff sticking out of the ground and bare walls — and they had this vision to say, ‘This is where we’re going to have fan fest and it’s going to be epic.’ And it was,” Ryan Walsh, CEO of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, told Houston Public Media, praising the fan fest’s organizers.
That turnout withstood the heat advisories throughout the World Cup. Fewer than 70 people were transported to hospitals for heat-related illnesses out of the half-a-million visitors.
As World Cup officials promoted new levels of walkability and mobility around the Houston area, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) estimated some 5.5 million public transit rides took place between June 12 and July 8. Across the seven matchdays, 500,000 riders were reported on METRO’s light rail lines.
Between June 12 and July 6, Houston airports had 4.5 million passengers, including 60 charter flights, half of which were for national soccer teams.
Other fans opted to walk to the stadium for their team’s matches. Between Portuguese, Uzbek, Swedish, Brazilian, Japanese, and Canadian marches — not to mention the iconic Netherlands Oranje Fan Walk — an estimated 55,000 people participated in fan walks throughout Houston’s World Cup matches.