We gamed out how much it would cost a fan to follow France and Argentina to the World Cup final

• Fans heading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup face the highest costs in the tournament's history.
• Business Insider crunched the numbers to figure out how much it would cost to actually attend the event.
• Following one of the tournament's favorites, Argentina, all the way to the final would cost over $30,000.

You've probably heard by now that this year's World Cup is set to be the most expensive yet.

But what does that actually mean for fans?

Business Insider crunched the numbers to game out how much it would cost a fan to follow their home team through the biggest sporting event in the world.

Using booking websites and publicly available information from host cities, we calculated how much a fan would spend to attend the event based on four data points: the cost of each game ticket, flights to each host city, hotels, and local transit costs to and from the stadium.

There are 48 teams competing in this year's World Cup. The event runs for roughly five weeks, from June 11 to July 19. To narrow down the scope of the experiment, we decided to follow the finalists of the last tournament and two big favorites for the 2026 tournament: Argentina and France.

The results? Get ready to spend.

We found that a dedicated Argentina fan could have to shell out over $30,000 to follow their team the whole way through the tournament.

Our methodology

Before we get into the details, a couple of key points on our methodology:

• All flight, game ticket, and hotel data was gathered in early May; a fan's true spend could fluctuate if they book earlier or later.
• We assume the fan is traveling from the country they are supporting and would need to find hotel accommodation for the full five weeks of the tournament.
• For international flights, we looked at the cheapest option with a maximum of one stop. For domestic flights, we looked at the cheapest direct flights.
• For hotels, we looked at the cheapest 3-star option in the host city's downtown.

Attending the group stage will run close to $10,000

Every team competing in the World Cup is guaranteed to play its first three games, no matter if they win or lose. This is called the group stage.

Tickets to see Argentina are more expensive because it's one of the favorites to win the World Cup. Many also expect this tournament to be the last in which fans can see arguably soccer's greatest player of all time, Lionel Messi, before retiring.

Argentina plays its opening match in Kansas City, followed by two games in Dallas.

Based on our calculations and including game tickets, hotel rooms, flight tickets, and local transit, it would cost a fan from Argentina about $9,800 to see all three games.

Here's the breakdown:

First, there is the cost of a flight from the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. The cheapest available flight to Kansas City with a maximum of one layover was over $1,300 with United Airlines.

Five nights in a three-star hotel in Kansas City would cost about $1,800. Eight nights in Dallas would cost over $3,000.

And then there's the game itself.

We looked at the cheapest seats available in early May, and found it would cost $747 for the game in Kansas City against Algeria, $835 for the first game in Dallas against Austria, and $862 for the final game against Jordan.

Add on the $166 Southwest Airlines flight between the two cities, $33 in local transit costs, and some $900 for a flight back to Buenos Aires, and the total is approaching five figures.

The cost of going to the World Cup final

What if you were a particularly loyal supporter of Argentina's soccer team, determined to see every game in the hopes of witnessing Messi lift the World Cup trophy yet again?

The teams that make it all the way to the finals will play five more games: the round of 32, the round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the final.

Presuming Argentina wins the group stage, they would play the round of 32 in Miami on July 3.

Spending three more nights in Dallas before following the team to Miami would bring a fan's total hotel spend so far to $5,630.

From here, the cost of a game ticket starts to balloon. The cheapest available ticket to the July 3 game was just over $2,000.

Miami is one of the most expensive cities for local transit during the World Cup. Brightline, the high-speed train operator, is charging $141 for a round-trip between downtown Miami and Aventura, the closest station to Hard Rock Stadium. That's over five times as expensive as on a normal day.

Argentina's route would then continue to Atlanta for the round of 16, Kansas City for the quarterfinals, and back to Atlanta for the semis, before the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The cheapest domestic flights between each of the host cities ranged from $136 to $198. A fan following the Argentine team would spend roughly $700 to fly between host cities throughout the rest of the tournament.

The cheapest ticket for the semi-finals was about $2,500, while the final cost nearly $6,000.

Getting to the stadium will cost $98 for a round-trip train ticket from Manhattan's Penn Station. NJ Transit originally announced this price at $150 before lowering it thanks to advertising deals.

In all, following Argentina to the final would cost around $31,000.

That's particularly striking when considering that Argentina's GDP per capita is roughly $14,300.

The cost of following France

It would be cheaper to follow France all the way to the big game — but not by much.

The main benefit is that most of France's games are scheduled in a smaller area. France's group stage games are in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Boston. It's the same three cities for the first three knockout rounds. The final is at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.

This means our hypothetical fan could base themselves in New York, spending $6,700 on a hotel for almost a monthlong stay.

Amtrak rail tickets between the cities ranged from $25 to $103 when looking in early May.

It would then be a $218 flight to Dallas for the semi-final, plus a $1,000 hotel, then back to New York, and another $1,700 in hotel costs.

Adding the local transit costs — including an $80 rail ticket in Boston — and game tickets, which are similar to Argentina's, the figure reaches $25,000.

If the France fan were lucky enough to lock down free accommodation in New York City for the duration of the tournament, their spend would decrease dramatically, coming out closer to $16,721.

How the World Cup dynamic pricing works

FIFA is using dynamic pricing for this year's World Cup, which means ticket prices have varied widely.

In a statement to Business Insider, FIFA said it is "focused on ensuring fair access to our game for existing and prospective fans."

"FIFA's variable pricing ticketing approach aligns with industry trends across various sports and entertainment sectors," the organization added.

It said it offered 1,000 tickets at $60 each for each match, distributed by each participating country's governing body for the sport and allocated to loyal fans.

Under the dynamic pricing model, it is much cheaper to buy tickets to watch some of the tournament's lower-ranked teams, which have little hope of getting past the group stage, let alone reaching the final.

For example, the cheapest resale ticket available on Friday for Saudi Arabia vs Cape Verde, which are ranked 61st and 69th, respectively, was $126.07.