2026 World Cup countdown: 100 days of facts, stats and stories

The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994, which means the hype machine is officially warming up and there’s no turning it off now.

Over the next few months, Yahoo Sports is counting down with a daily post about the biggest sporting event on the planet: the numbers, the moments, the absurd scale of it all. Some days it’ll be history. Some days it’ll be pure spectacle. Some days it’ll be a reminder that half a billion people tuning in for a random Tuesday match is somehow normal for this sport.

The 2026 version of the World Cup is gearing up to be complicated, messy, political and overwhelming. But once it’s here, it’ll stop the world in a way almost nothing else can.

So this is the build, one day at a time. Let’s go!

This is part of our 2026 World Cup countdown. It’ll be 100 days of stories capturing the reach, history and absurd magnitude of soccer’s biggest stage. Check back daily as we build toward kickoff on June 11.

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