The 2026 FIFA World Cup is over, and the impact of content creators (and how brands and platforms leveraged them) is clear. For perhaps the first time in the tournament’s history, creators were given unprecedented access to games, players, and other FIFA-related events through YouTube and TikTok’s unique platform partnerships with FIFA, while official sponsors leveraged their massive audiences to push products to a younger audience.
Some even called the tournament the Creator World Cup. Creator-led content outperformed celebrity endorsements (with successful activations from Kalshi, Polymarket, and Airbnb), YouTube and TikTok’s unique partnerships with FIFA proved successful, and mega creators brought their young fans to watch the storied tournament in droves with alternative broadcasts and coverage across social media, according to data from the platforms and analysts.
Let’s look at how creators showed up at this year’s World Cup.
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